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Daniel Pennac was born in Casablanca in 1944, his father being in the army. He travelled widely in his youth, in Europe, Asia and Africa, and has been employed in a number of capacities, including woodcutter, Paris cab driver, illustrator and schoolteacher. His 'Belleville Quintet', written round the character of Benjamin Malauss ne has been published in many languages.
A quirky, original comedy * In Style Magazine * A darkly comic meditation on life, death and the illusions of power * New Statesman * His adult fiction retains a childlike quality, existing in an imaginary realm where childhood and adulthood blur; reminiscent of Italo Calvino * Daily Telegraph * Patricia Clancy's beautifully tuned ear has given us the full equivalent of Pennac's French humour, half erudite clowning and half absurdist whimsy. His style, seemingly offhand, is studiously exact and Clancy respectfully follows his precisely scripted convolutions * Guardian * The wealth of subsidiary narratives - all the impeccably crafted anecdotes and myths and allegories, stories large and small...produce a sophisticated reading experience and suggest a writer whose political view is amused and tart. They are so good, these stories, and so intelligently amusing, and they arrive so frequently, that we never have time to think of asking for more * Times Literary Supplement *
