W. or the Memory of Childhood by Georges Perec
Part adventure tale, part autobiography, this story alternates between two inextricably bound narratives, one a careful reconstruction of a childhood fantasy about a land in thrall to an Olympic ideal, the other a fragmentary tale of a wartime childhood. Georges Perec has written many novels including Un Cabinet d'amateur, Un Homme qui dort, Je me souviens and Les Choses. Une histoire des annees soixante, recipient of the Prix Renaudot 1965.