V13

Reviews

Emmanuelle Carrère has written what will surely be remembered as a classic account of the Bataclan trial, rigorous and admirably self-effacing. Yet as heartbreaking as V13 is, Carrère never succumbs to despair, or to a seductive pessimism about France's future: his book is an affirmation of life, of survival, of the bonds of community and solidarity that allow us to rebuild in the aftermath of shattering violence Forensic and troubling, deeply humane, utterly gripping, a book of singular importance for our times, on law as story and life, superbly rendered for the reader in English Historical atrocity trials put the law to work against violence and terror. Their business is justice. But the law alone cannot tell us about evil, survival or grief. Something has to be added for a trial to become a human event. In Emmanuel Carrère’s stunning account of the V13 trial, that something is simply brilliant writing. Not since Hannah Arendt wrote about the trial of the Nazi Adolf Eichmann has a book laid bare the political and moral scaffolding of our times with such commitment and intelligence Impelled by a tolerant mind's desire to confront the intolerable, packed with humane insight and indelible detail, V13 is an utterly riveting account of one of contemporary Europe's darkest nights - and its anguished aftermath - by a French literary colossus Expand reviews