Sylvain Tesson's wandering journey of solitude through the countryside of France

University of Minnesota Press

ON THE WANDERING PATHS is Sylvain Tesson’s literary adventure and philosophical reflection during a three-month journey of solitude and personal contemplation while walking along vast stretches of mountain ranges and rivers, ancient bridges and villages, of France’s countryside. This exquisite chronicle through landscapes that continue to resist urbanization and technology is a thoughtful and thought-provoking glimpse into a poet’s adventurous life. Author Daniel Hornsby, who writes the Foreword to the new English translation from University of Minnesota Press, joins the Press’s Eric Lundgren in conversation.

Eric Lundgren is the Outreach and Development Manager at the University of Minnesota Press. His novel The Facades (Overlook Press) was a Barnes & Noble Discover Great New Writers pick and a finalist for the William Saroyan International Writing Prize. His writing has appeared in Tin House, The Los Angeles Review of Books, Boulevard, and The Millions, and a new story, "Actaeon at the Movies", is out in Post Road 39.

Daniel Hornsby is the author of Via Negativa (Knopf) and Sucker (Anchor, February 2023). His stories and essays have appeared in the Los Angeles Review of Books, Bookforum, The Missouri Review, and Joyland.

This translation of On the Wandering Paths is published with the support of Villa Albertine, in partnership with the French Embassy.