• About Us
• Academic
• Authors
• Awards
• Books
• Contact
• Upcoming Events
• Meta-Talon
• News
• Ordering
• Sales & Distribution
• Submission Guidelines
• View Shopping Cart
•  
• Browse Books by Category
• Drama
• Fiction
• Non-Fiction
• Poetry

Thierry Hentsch

Swiss-born, Francophone author Thierry Hentsch carried out various diplomatic missions for the International Red Cross in Syria, Palestine and Pakistan. An expert in intercultural relations, especially between the East and West, he published many incisive journal articles, reviews and collections, which have appeared in Conjonctures, Études internationales, Spirale and Le Monde diplomatique. His extensive research efforts culminated in L’Orient imaginaire [ Imagining the Middle East ], a much-heralded 1988 publication in which Hentsch provides a solemn critique of the Western perception of the Middle East and reflects on the construction of Western literary, cultural, philosophical, and political identities in relation to the “other.” Hentsch taught political philosophy and international relations at the Université du Québec à Montréal.

BOOK AWARDS

Winner of the 2005 Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation

BOOK AWARDS

Finalist for the 2009 Governor General’s Literary Award for Translation

QUOTES OF NOTE

“A work of great depth, magnificently written.”
— Le Devoir

QUOTES OF NOTE

“A monumental study of the stories that have shaped the narrative identity of Western civilization and its vision of the world, Truth or Death: The Quest for Immortality in the Western Narrative Tradition by Thierry Hentsch is, first and foremost, a celebration of the act of (re)reading designed to spark renewed interest in the narrative texts that constitute Western consciousness, along with the truths upon which it reposes… Taking its cue from the original, Fred A. Reed’s magnificent translation offers a sophisticated, intellectually engaged, eminently readable retelling of Hentsch’s retelling of the West’s founding narratives.”

— University of Toronto Quarterly

“Hentsch’s book gives a new meaning to the experience of reading itself as the medium that keeps meaning alive in our lives and connects us to our past. At the same time, the book brings to comparison the two most important modes of expressing meanings i.e. narrative and philosophy.”

— Bookpleasures.com

“This is an eminently readable translation of Thierry Hentsch’s book, which awakens in us a desire to return to the great literary classics of western civilization and see them with fresh eyes. Thanks to his breadth of knowledge and superb command of language, Fred A. Reed has demonstrated the very story-telling skills celebrated in the original text.”

— Governor General’s Awards Jury, 2005

“All those who wonder what is a classic, or who simply wish to re-establish contact with the sources of the Western narrative tradition, will find here a work of great depth, magnificently written.”

— Le Devoir

“Gives a powerful urge to return to the great stories.”

— Le Temps(Geneva)_

“By warning the reader against the danger of losing faith in the power of stories, and in the power of the imagination, Thierry Hentsch proves that myth is not dead, that man still seeks to understand, through stories and in the form of a story, his relationship with existence and with death.”

— Spirale