Balloonists. The First Blood

In the book you will find the last two novels by Amélie Nothomb: "Balloonists" and "The First Blood". In "Balloonists", Nothomb portrays a 19-year-old student and a 16-year-old schoolboy – they are inquisitive, stubborn, both are unhappy and unfree in their own way. Their acquaintance begins with a discussion of the "Iliad" and the "Odyssey", and ends in tragedy. "The First Blood" is the story of Amélie Nothomb's father's life, told from his perspective. The author retrospectively shows how a sad, spoiled boy grows into a man ready to stand under the barrel of a gun to protect another. Despite all the differences, both works are about youth, about the value of life, about the inevitability of death. In both novels, Nothomb easily shatters the illusion of everyday safety, pointing the reader to the abyss that suddenly seems within arm's reach.