{"title":"Books by Boris Vian","description":null,"products":[{"product_id":"9781800818743","title":"Mood Indigo","description":"'A mad, moving, beautiful novel' IndependentThe world of Mood Indigo is a stained-glass cartoon kind of a place, where the piano dispenses cocktails, the kitchen mice dance to the sound of sunbeams, and the air is three parts jazz. Colin is a wealthy young aristocrat with a big heart. The instant he sees Chloe, bass drums thump inside his shirt, and soon the two are married. Typically generous, Colin gives a quarter of his fortune to his best friend Chick so he can marry Chloe's friend Alyssum.But a lily grows in Chloe's lung, and Colin must spend his remaining fortune on the only available treatment: surrounding her daily with fresh flowers. Chick squanders his share of Colin's money on rare books and it is not long before the friends are forced to sacrifice their carefree lives to soul-crushing work.A surreal cult classic that continues to inspire and endure, Mood Indigo is an animated and delightful satire.","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56306934972789,"sku":"9781800818743","price":10.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781800818743_33c0fe70-e767-4213-bf65-645235185510.jpg?v=1786027356"},{"product_id":"9781939663825","title":"Vercoquin and the Plankton","description":"\u003cp\u003e\u003cstrong\u003eA nonconformist satire of both bureaucracy and nonconformism from the French polymath and author of \u003ci\u003eFoam of the Days\u003c\/i\u003e\u003c\/strong\u003e\u003c\/p\u003e\u003cp\u003eWritten at the age of 23 for his friends in the winter of 1943–44, \u003ci\u003eVercoquin and the Plankton\u003c\/i\u003e was the first of Vian’s novels to be published under his own name. Published in 1947, the book came out two months after his succès de scandale \u003ci\u003eI Spit on Your Graves\u003c\/i\u003e and two months before the publication of his beloved classic \u003ci\u003eThe Foam of the Days\u003c\/i\u003e. At once social documentary, scathing satire and jazz manifesto, \u003ci\u003eVercoquin and the Plankton\u003c\/i\u003e describes the collision of two worlds under the Vichy regime: that of the youthful dandyism of the ever-partying \u003ci\u003eZazous\u003c\/i\u003e and the murderously maniacal bureaucracy of a governmental office for standardization. In this roman à clef drawn from Vian’s own contradictory lives as a jazz musician on the Left Bank and an engineer at the French National Organization for Standardization, the reader is introduced to a handful of characters inhabiting a world lying somewhere between Occupied Paris and Looney Tunes.\u003cbr\u003e\u003cb\u003eBoris Vian\u003c\/b\u003e (1920–59) was a French polymath who in his short life managed to inhabit the roles of writer, poet, playwright, musician, singer\/songwriter, translator, music critic, actor, inventor and engineer, before dying of a heart attack at the age of 39, after authoring ten novels, several volumes of short stories, plays, operas, articles and nearly 500 songs. Vian is remembered as one of the reigning spirits of the postwar Parisian Latin Quarter, a friend to everyone from Jean-Paul Sartre to Raymond Queneau and Miles Davis, playing trumpet with Claude Abadie and Claude Luter, and an influence on such future kindred spirits as Serge Gainsbourg.\u003c\/p\u003e","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56309660615029,"sku":"9781939663825","price":12.99,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":true}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9781939663825_f521dcc3-139c-4316-8b8a-24dfb042c12c.jpg?v=1786030749"},{"product_id":"9782253140870","title":"L'ecume des jours","description":"\u003cbr\u003eBinding: Paperback \/ softback","brand":"Gardners","offers":[{"title":"Default Title","offer_id":56313259458933,"sku":"9782253140870","price":10.75,"currency_code":"GBP","in_stock":false}],"thumbnail_url":"\/\/cdn.shopify.com\/s\/files\/1\/0612\/7193\/3106\/files\/9782253140870_0bc13b0b-b46f-4c0b-8f29-aaff2757a070.jpg?v=1786032012"}],"url":"https:\/\/backstory.london\/collections\/author-boris-vian.oembed","provider":"Backstory","version":"1.0","type":"link"}