Stoner

Poet and prose writer John Williams (1922–1994), winner of the U.S. National Book Award, published only four novels—and one of them is the famous “Stoner,” a book with an unusual and happy fate. First published fifty years ago, it unexpectedly found a second life in the 21st century. The reissue caused a huge stir in America. The world-famous Anna Gavaldas took on the French translation, and “Stoner,” with the cover line “Read it, loved it, and translated it” by Anna Gavaldas, won over France. Soon translations into other languages followed, and the author received posthumous fame.

A farm boy, William Stoner, unexpectedly became deeply absorbed in Shakespeare’s texts. Refusing to go back after college to the parental farm, he stays at the university to continue his studies, and then begins teaching. All of his decisions, actions, relationships with his family, with his beloved woman—and ultimately his entire fate—are determined by his passionate love of literature. Hence the astonishing, at first glance, statement by Anna Gavaldas: “Stoner is me.”