Powerful and compelling' Guardian

'Mathieu, a wonderful writer, echoes the grittiness and compassion of Émile Zola in Germinal' Sunday Times

After the closure of a small-town factory is announced, the local community is hit by the prospect of mass unemployment. With nothing left to lose, the desperate workers take matters into their own hands. Martel, a former trade union rep, and Bruce, a bodybuilder on steroids, resort to extreme measures. And after an attempted kidnapping goes horribly wrong, they are dragged into a spiraling frenzy of crime.

In the political tradition of Balzac and Zola, Of Fangs and Talons announces Nicolas Mathieu as one of the most urgent contemporary voices in French literature.

'Nicolas Mathieu has written one of the best crime novels of the year'
Le Monde

"Before Nicolas Mathieu won the Prix Goncourt in 2018 for And Their Children After Them he wrote this remarkable novel about two small-town scallies who resort to crime when the local factory closes down . . . Mathieu, a wonderful writer, echoes the grittiness and compassion of Émile Zola in Germinal" - Sunday Times

"There are several intersecting stories in this bleakly uncompromising portrait of working-class life in the Vosges . . . this tale of helpless, resentful people with nothing to lose is powerful and compelling." - Guardian

"Award-winning novelist Nicolas Mathieu portrays how the destruction of working-class communities has fed cynicism and despair." - Jacobin Magazine

"A first novel of rare power" - Le Figaro Littéraire

"Nicolas Mathieu has written one of the best crime novels of the year" - Le Monde