The Anomaly

Victor Miesel’s editor, Clémence Balmer, thinks Victor is a good writer and is always impressed by how casually Victor handles it when his previous novels fail to sell or win prizes. On the day of Victor’s suicide, Clémence receives Victor’s new book, The Anomaly, via email. She reads it immediately and finds it “unputdownable” (86). Worried by the book’s existential tone, Clémence reaches out to the author and learns what happened. When she rereads The Anomaly, the suicide gives it a new context, and she notices that Victor signed his name “Victør,” with the symbol for an empty set instead of an “o” (87).

Since Victor had no relatives, Clémence handles notifications to his friends and organizes the funeral. They publish The Anomaly as quickly as they can, and it is an immediate success. Major publications publish reviews and obituaries of Victor, his old novels are rereleased, famous actors read extracts from his books in bookstores, and many of Victor’s acquaintances–including one of Victor’s exes, Ilena Leskov—trade on Victor’s posthumous fame.

Ugo Darchini, the Italian consul to Nigeria, attends a reception in Lagos toward the end of June 2021 to celebrate the opening of the Eko Atlantic Hotel.