In late-nineteenth-century Paris, the writer Hubert is shocked to discover that Icarus, the protagonist of the new novel he’s working on, has vanished. Looking for him among the manuscripts of his rivals does not solve the mystery, so a detective is hired to find the runaway character, who is now in Montparnasse, where he learns to drink absinthe and is picked up by a friendly prostitute.

These hilarious adventures make Queneau’s novel, presented in the form of a script and parodying various genres, one of the best literary jeux d’esprit in modern literature.

Part of The Raymond Queneau Collection now at £25