Annual Feast of the Burial Brotherhood

A young researcher goes from bustling Paris to the remote French countryside. He dreams of studying the rural way of life and the customs of the locals in detail. His guide through the Marsh paths is the local mayor.
Behind the mask of everyday life, the hero will uncover funny and terrifying secrets. For even his counselor, simultaneously a mentor and a calling, is also the chief undertaker, a young boar - the vessel of the local abbot's soul, and the village fool - a true seer... And they are all subject to the eternal transformation of fates, the relentless Wheel, the cycle of life and death. Only once a year does it stop, and Death takes a breather. Then, members of the Burial Brotherhood gather for their annual feast to discuss pressing issues and celebrate Life - filling their bellies with food, drinking liters of wine, and deafening each other with banquet speeches! They certainly know everything about the world and humanity.
The exquisite text of Mathias Énard, rich in cultural and historical allusions, sometimes hilariously funny, Rabelaisian in its richness, and at times psychologically piercing, is a true literary feast.