The Flood - Penguin Modern Classics Author:Jean-Marie Gustave Le Clezio Francois Besson listens to a tape recording of a girl contemplating suicide. Drifting through the days in a provincial city, he thoughtlessly starts a fire in his apartment, attends confession, and examines, with great intentness but without affection, a naked woman he wakes beside. And, as Besson moves through an ugly and threatening rain, his ... more »thoughts eventually lead to violence, first turned outward and then directed languidly against himself.« less