by Alain Robbe-Grillet

The first novel in twenty years from France's master of the nouveau roman is a triumphant accomplishment. Reminiscent of Orson Welles's 'The Third Man, Repetition is an atmospheric spy novel of violence, mystery, and tricks of the eye, set in a bombed-out 1949 Berlin. Henri Robin, a special agent of the French secret service, arrives in the ruined city and feels linked to it by a vague and recurrent memory. There is a shooting, a kidnapping, druggings, encounters with pimps and teenage whores, police interrogations, even torture. Bits and pieces of the Oedipus story resonate through the book's elegant labyrinth as Robin slowly senses that he was in Berlin before--as a child, with his mother, perhaps looking for his father. 'Repetition proves thrillingly true 'The New York Times's proclamation that 'I doubt that fiction as art can any longer be seriously discussed without Robbe-Grillet.