New Book Spotlight: The Emotions by Jean-Philippe Toussaint

Do we want to know what the next few days or weeks have in store for us? Do we want to know if a new romantic or sexual encounter lies just ahead, or how close death really is? (Other Press, 2025)

The Emotions by Jean-Philippe Toussaint, one of Europe’s most celebrated contemporary writers, is a quiet yet unsettling novel that explores these questions through grief, memory, and uncertainty. Translated from the French by Mark Polizzotti, this introspective work examines how the future is imagined, misread, and often undone by the past.

Overview: What Is The Emotions About?

Set against the bureaucratic machinery of the European Union, The Emotions follows Jean Deprez, a European civil servant specializing in strategic foresight. After the death of his father, Jean begins to revisit his past while obsessively anticipating what lies ahead. He is professionally trained to predict outcomes, yet increasingly incapable of doing so in his personal life.

As political and personal upheavals unfold, including Brexit, the election of Trump, the dissolution of a relationship, and a night spent with a stranger, Jean confronts the limits of prediction and the instability of memory.

Fiction That Disrupts Reality

Toussaint’s novel functions as an experiment in how fiction destabilizes our sense of reality. Jean foresees events that never occur, fails to imagine those that will devastate him, and often does not fully grasp what he is experiencing in the present moment. Even his recollections of the past remain unreliable, filtered through grief and self-doubt.

This deliberate uncertainty transforms The Emotions into a meditation on time, both the time that has passed and the time we imagine is still to come.

Themes: Love, Politics, Masculinity, and Memory

The Emotions is an intimate exploration of mourning and emotional disorientation. Toussaint weaves together:

• Personal grief and the death of a parent
• The fragility of romantic relationships
• Political instability in contemporary Europe
• Masculinity and emotional restraint
• The failure of rational systems to account for human feeling

The result is a subtle, contemporary novel that lingers long after the final page.

Why You Should Read The Emotions

Fans of European literary fiction in translation will find much to admire here. Readers who enjoyed Kairos by Jenny Erpenbeck or Grey Bees by Andrey Kurkov will appreciate Toussaint’s restrained prose, philosophical depth, and emotional precision.

The Emotions is ideal for readers drawn to introspective novels that examine grief, memory, and the illusion of control in modern life.

About the Author: Jean-Philippe Toussaint

Jean-Philippe Toussaint is a Belgian novelist, photographer, and filmmaker. He is the author of eighteen books, translated into more than twenty languages, and has received numerous literary awards, including the Prix Médicis (2005) for Fuir (Running Away) and the Prix Décembre (2009) for La Vérité sur Marie (The Truth About Marie).

In 2012, Toussaint created a multimedia exhibition at the Louvre Museum combining photography, video, installation art, and performance to convey literary works without written text.

About the Translator: Mark Polizzotti

Mark Polizzotti is an award-winning translator of more than fifty books from French, including works by Gustave Flaubert, Patrick Modiano, Marguerite Duras, André Breton, and Raymond Roussel. His translation of Kibogo by Scholastique Mukasonga was shortlisted for the National Book Award (2022), and his translation of Éric Vuillard’s The War of the Poor was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize (2021).

Polizzotti is also the author of eleven books, including Revolution of the Mind: The Life of André Breton and Sympathy for the Traitor: A Translation Manifesto.