La disparition (L'Imaginaire)

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It has been translated into English by Gilbert Adair under the title A Void (1994). Many of Perec's novels and essays abound with experimental word play, lists and attempts at classification, and they are usually tinged with melancholy. Its title page describes it as "novels," in the plural, the reasons for which become apparent on reading. Perec's parents were Polish-Jewish immigrants to France; his father died as a soldier early in the Second World War and his mother was murdered in the Holocaust, and many of Perec's works deal with absence, loss, and identity, often through word play. It was written according to a complex plan of writing constraints: the 99 chapters of the 600-page novel move like a knight's tour of a chessboard around the room plan of the building, describing the rooms and stairwell and telling the stories of the inhabitants. Size guide Perec's most famous novel La Vie mode d'emploi (Life A User's Manual) was published in 1978.