A Hundred Million Years and a Day
SHORTLISTED FOR THE PRIX JOSEPH KESSEL 2020
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GRAND PRIX DE L’ACADÉMIE FRANÇAISE 2019
SHORTLISTED FOR THE GRAND PRIX DES BLOGUEURS LITTÉRAIRES 2019
Chosen as one of French booksellers’ Top 5 Titles of Autumn 2019 in Livres Hebdo
‘On the mountain, the only monsters are the ones you take with you.’
Stan has been hunting for fossils since the age of six. Now, in the summer of 1954, he hears a story he cannot forget: the skeleton of a huge creature – a veritable dragon – lies deep in an Alpine glacier. And he is determined to find it.
But Stan is no mountaineer. To complete his dangerous expedition, he must call on loyal friend Umberto, who arrives with an eccentric young assistant, and expert guide Gio. Time is short: the four men must descend before the weather turns. As bonds are forged and tested, the hazardous quest for the earth’s lost creatures becomes a journey into Stan’s own past.
‘Breathless and heartbreaking...the story is thrilling and wrenching by turns...Tracing a treasure that waits just out of reach, A Hundred Million Years and a Day speaks to the adventurers within us all’ — Foreword Reviews
‘Poignant, short but powerful … explores ideas of comradeship, the persistence of childhood trauma and the nature of obsession.’ — Sunday Times
‘brief, unusual, but supremely effective… explores the limits of human physical endurance with total conviction.’ —The Tablet
‘This is an unforgettable novel, beautifully written and utterly gripping.’ — Mail on Sunday
‘A sublime and beautiful book’ — Carys Davies, author of West
‘Every line is golden. It’s impossible to describe it without selling it short. It is a small, perfect thing, beautiful and devastating’ — Sara Taylor, author of The Shore
‘Spare, elegant and poetic, this slender novel is quietly devastating’ — Daily Mail
Jean-Baptiste Andrea is a director, screenwriter and author. Born in 1971, he grew up in Cannes. His first novel, Ma Reine, was published in 2017 and won 12 literary prizes including the Prix du Premier Roman and the Prix Femina des Lycéens.
Sam Taylor was born in Nottinghamshire, England in 1970, and began his career as a journalist with The Observer. In 2001, he moved to southwest France, where he wrote four novels. In 2010, he translated his first novel: Laurent Binet's HHhH. He now lives in the United States and works as a literary translator and author. Recent translations include The Truth about the Harry Quebert Affair, The Heart (for which he won the French-American Translation Prize) and Lullaby/The Perfect Nanny.
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