The cult classic from one of France's most stylish writers
'Don't give a damn,' says Zazie, 'what I wanted was to go in the metro'
Impish, foul-mouthed Zazie arrives in Paris from the country to stay with her uncle Gabriel. All she really wants to do is ride the metro, but finding it shut because of a strike, Zazie looks for other means of amusement and is soon caught up in a comic adventure that becomes wilder and more manic by the minute. In 1960 Queneau's cult classic was made into a hugely successful film by Louis Malle. Packed full of word play and phonetic games, Zazie in the Metro remains as stylish and witty as ever.
Raymond Queneau is remembered as one of the great comic, experimental French writers of the twentieth century. Co-founder of Oulipo, he published many books including Exercises in Style, but Zazie in the metro remains the popular favourite which has captured readers' imaginations around the world. Queneau died in 1976, aged seventy-three.