“Part spy novel, part textual game. . . . Identity, point of view and objective truth are all thrown into question. . . . What slowly emerges from the fog is a Sophoclean oedipal revenge drama, complete with incest, blindness, parricide and fratricide. Mirrors, doubles, double agents, repetitions, trompe l”oeil war paintings, dream sequences, sexual torture, a criminal mafia of postwar Nazis and murky memories add to the disquieting, disorienting literary puzzle.”—Heller McAlpin, The San Francisco Chronicle

“Exhibits a sensibility as nervous and contemporary–not to mention witty–as that of any novelist working today. . . . Objects play as dramatic a role in Repetition as do characters. . . . Following the clues of objects and the evolution of their relationships is part of the pleasure . . . This novel packs in plenty of the old Robbe-Grillet, including erotic-sadistic passages decidedly not for the faint of heart.”—Kai Maristed, The Los Angeles Times

“A spy tale whose prime puzzle lies in the philosophical intricacies of its own construction.”—Troy Patterson, Entertainment Weekly

“[Robbe-Grillet] still wields his literary arsenal quite deftly.”—Tess Lewis, The Baltimore Sun

“Playfully hypnotic. . . .Repetition is the high concept that made Robbe-Grillet’s reputation. . . . Repetition will come as a pleasant surprise: fast moving story, well realized characters, a succession of delightfully unanticipated yet logical revelations.”—William Poundstone, The Village Voice

“There’s a real joy here, an exuberance and humor. . . . It is this delight, combined with the adult mastery of the writing, that makes this book a welcome and important edition to R-G’s oeuvre. . . . A work of remarkable complexity and, dare I say it, beauty.”—Jeffrey De Shellm, Review of Contemporary Fiction

“The presentation is seamier, the situations darker, and the narrative energy crackles with greater insistence than ever before. [Repetition] is both an investigation into human consciousness and a bona fide thriller.”—Laird Hunt, Rain Taxi

“A Gothic masterpiece. . . . Repetition is the best horror novel one can hope to read this year. . . .This isn’t raw terror but rather vague apprehension, total confusion, as memory breaks down and reality is warped again and again. . . . Repetition is fearfest like no other, and a rewarding text that demands to be reread again and again. The master hasn’t lost his touch.”—R.B. Strauss, The Avon Grove Sun

“An oedipal journey. . . . Newcomers braced for surreal narrative lurches will find this an entertaining introduction to Robbe-Grillet’s work. As the title coyly suggests, his admirers will find much of the territory familiar, but that only adds another layer of irony to Robbe-Grillet’s witty allusions.”—Publishers Weekly

“Robbe-Grillet figures the unreliability of the narrator . . . by obsessively returning to the story of Oedipus, recalling not only Sophocles and Kierkegaard but [his own] celebrated first novel, The Erasers. . . . The self-seriousness of Robbe-Grillet’s early experimental fiction has devolved into a grave playfulness.”—Kirkus Reviews

“[A] literary thriller. . . . What is thrilling here is Robbe-Grillet’s extraordinary command of language and his skill at creating atmosphere.”—Barbara Hoffert, Library Journal

“Transforms a tale of espionage set in 1949 Berlin into a psychological quest into one man’s precarious sense of self, persistent Oedipal urges and regrets, and sadistic erotic fantasies. . . . Illusion, lust, deception, criminality–all are employed in Robbe-Grillet’s eerie exploration of the strange force of repetition, of compulsively recollecting and reinventing the painful past.”—Donna Seaman, Booklist

“One of the greatest books of the past few decades . . . A game of chance which alludes to Daedalus’ labyrinth . . . full of false corridors and tricks of the eye . . . [Repetition] gives to the coming century a foundational text.”—Fran”ois Busnel, L”Express

“[Repetition is] a labyrinth where one loves to lose oneself for the sake of the nuggets of youth which are strewn in naughty parcels throughout it.”—Jean Baptiste Harang, Lib”ration

Praise for Alain Robbe-Grillet:

“I doubt that fiction as art can any longer be seriously discussed without Robbe-Grillet.”—The New York Times

“Robbe-Grillet’s theories constitute the most ambitious aesthetic program since Surrealism.”—John Updike

“I was inspired by Robbe-Grillet’s daring and rigorous example. . . . His early novels . . . are not amusing costume jewelry but big, glittering diamonds.”—Edmund White, Los Angeles Times

Alain Robbe-Grillet (1922-2008) was born in Brest, France. He was one of the most important postwar avant-gardist, and along with Michel Butor, Nathalie Sarraute and Claude Simon Robbe-Grillet was a founder of the “New Novelists” or noveau roman literary movement.