Aux Animaux la Guerre is the first novel of Nicolas Mathieu. Published by Actes Noirs, the noir division of Actes Sud, in 2014, it has won four awards, has been translated into English by Sam Taylor (under the title Of Fangs And Talons) and was adapted for a six-episode French television series.

Synopsis Velocia, the last remaining automotive subcontractor in a Vosges valley town hit by deindustrialization, closes its factory, to the despair of the workers and the disdain of the trade union. Martel, a trade union representative, is promoted to secretary of the works council. With the factory threatened with closure, Martel crosses paths with Rita, a bereaved and combative labor inspector, and teams up with Bruce, a muscular and drug-addicted colleague, to try and make ends meet. He resorts to crime in a plot that escalates into a kidnapping.Sélection LE MEILLEUR DES ADAPTATIONS. (2023, May). Lire, 56. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A772161247/GLS?u=lln_pebr&sid=bookmark-GLS&xid=557d12d1.

Awards Prix Erckmann-Chatrian, 2014 Prix Transfuge du meilleur espoir Polar, 2014 Prix Mystère de la critique, 2015 Prize for noir novel at the Festival du goéland masqué, 2015 , 2023 (audiobook)

Critical reception

Reviewing the English translation, Laura Wilson of The Guardian (UK) noted the novel's "bleakly uncompromising portrait of working-class life" She also praised Mathieu's style as "powerful and compelling."

Editions Aux animaux la guerre, Actes Sud, Collection Actes noirs, 2014. Aux animaux la guerre. Collection Babel Noir, Number 147, p.444-448. 6 January 2016. Of Fangs and Talons, Hodder & Stoughton, 5 August 2021. English translation by Sam Taylor.

Adaptation France 3 bought the audiovisual rights to the novel,BIO-BIBLIOGRAPHIE. (2022, February). Lire, 8. https://link.gale.com/apps/doc/A772153330/GLS?u=lln_pebr&sid=bookmark-GLS&xid=4d001b78 then distributed a television series adapted from it and under the same name for one season (six episodes) in November 2018, the same month and year that Mathieu was selected by the Académie Française for the Prix Goncourt. The show was directed by Alain Tasma and written by Tasma and the author in collaboration.

See also

References

External links Aux animaux | Œuvres | Éditions Actes Sud (official page for the novel on the Actes Sud website) (French television series, 2018)