A novel about the coming-of-age of a gaze.
First published by Éditions P.O.L. in 2019 and already translated into German, Spanish, and Japanese, Théo Casciani's first novel has been acclaimed by Le Monde as "opening the era of nouveau nouveau nouveau roman". Although Retina is a novel, it is also a ceaseless ekphrasis of images that span space and time, from the preparation of a Dominique Gonzalez-Foerster exhibition in Kobe, Japan, to the quest for a lover in Berlin on the 30th anniversary of the fall of the Wall. Through capturing in prose such a vast and brilliant array of images, Retina is an exhibition in itself.
Théo Casciani (born 1995 in Paris) is a French author whose work explores the intersection of literature, performance, and digital space. He studied at Sciences Po and Sorbonne University before joining La Cambre in Brussels, where he now lectures on literature and creative writing. His fiction has been presented internationally at institutions including the Louvre (Paris, 2023), Lafayette Anticipations (Paris, 2023), Centre Pompidou (Paris, 2022), WIELS (Brussels, 2022) and Kyoto Art Center (2019). He has also contributed to publications such as
Kaleidoscope,
Alphabet,
Klima,
Magma,
The European Review of Books and
The Brooklyn Rail.
