Françoise Sagan, an icon of modern French literature
The first domestic translation of an unpublished posthumous work!
Sagan's last work, personally discovered and compiled by his son, Denis Westof.

An unpublished novel by Sagang from deep within a drawer.
Although the paper is worn and the writing is faded, this work is one in which Sagang's sensibility, style, satire, and humor shine more vividly than any other work.
-《The Parisian》

It's careless, baroque, extraordinary, and so 'sad'.
-Denis Westoff

Set against a seemingly respectable bourgeois backdrop, this novel becomes more and more captivating and dangerously subversive as you turn the pages.
-《Livre Hebdo》

The unpublished posthumous work, "The Abyss of the Heart," by Françoise Sagan, an icon of modern French literature, has been published in Korea for the first time by Minumsa.
Sagan rose to prominence as a star in the French literary world with works such as "Goodbye, Sadness," published at the age of nineteen, and his representative work, "Do You Like Brahms?", which portray the subtle psychology between men and women facing love.
Based on his extensive reading and unique talent, he published over twenty works in various genres, including novels, essays, plays, and screenplays, and completed a persuasive psychological map of love.
He has maintained the 'Sagang Syndrome' for half a century by building a unique literary world with a delicate writing style and intimate psychological descriptions.
『The Abyss of the Heart』, which depicts love more vividly and radically than any of Sagang's other works, is considered to be Sagang's most 'like' work, despite being an unfinished novel with an open ending.

"The Abyss of the Heart" is a work that Denis Westof, Sagan's son, compiled and refined over the course of ten years from a manuscript he discovered after Sagan's death in 2004.
Based on the original manuscript, which was filled with notes, and the script adapted for film production, the sentences were refined without touching the style, and it was first released to the world in France in 2019 as Sagan's last work.
At the time of its publication, readers lined up in long lines in front of Parisian bookstores, and the sensational first edition sold out in a short period of time, once again demonstrating the continued strength of Sagan's reputation.


Even if the content was incomplete, regardless of its condition, this manuscript was an important part of Françoise Sagan's literary world and had to be published, and I was the only one who could complete it, the voices in my mind told me.
Readers who knew and loved Sagang had the right to read and understand the entire literary legacy she left behind.
- Denis Westoff, from "Preface"

“What do you want? What else do you want?”
“I want to be with you.
“I want you back.” --- p.73

In fact, Ludovic was a bit different from other people, he was ambiguous, and compared to Marie-Laure, he was too delicate and innocent… … .
In fact, Henri did not like things like purity.
In his view, purity was either artificial or a product of mental weakness… … .
--- p.111

“Don’t forget.
“I came here to let everyone in Touraine know that your son is not an idiot.” --- p.125

There are several stages of grief.
First, there is the harshness, the everyday banality.
Because of this, you are initially dazed, but eventually come to your senses, but you become completely indifferent to your surroundings.
It is about being 'disciplined' to those close to you or those far away.
After abandoning yourself to wandering and boredom, you gradually come out of your mourning and return to life.
Days that have changed unfold, and time passes without your loved one, a time when your relationship with him disappears.
--- p.142

In her view, there was absolutely no genuine conversation between son and father, husband and wife, mother-in-law and daughter-in-law.
Each of them held on to their own property and authority and had no interest in the other.
There was an air of impassability floating around here, only the occasional breeze from the prairie dispersing it.
--- p.155

A melody, both honey and poison, was flowing through the window.
He went to the window
Strangely, my body started trembling.
Soon, Fanny's profile appeared before his eyes.
For a moment, that face seemed 'distant and unreachable'.
As she played the theme over and over again, despair overwhelmed him.
He had never experienced, captured, or enjoyed what was in that music, what was floating in the air around him, in all his life.
--- p.163

They found each other in another realm, where there was no fear, no curiosity, no shame.
It could only be called fate.
--- p.194

A kiss under the dazzling sun may seem like a joke, but three words whispered in the dark are not.
When people experience secret pleasure in television or movies, it is not when they actually see a scene, but when they imagine it.
In real life, people prefer to witness something unexpectedly rather than learn or understand it naturally.
--- p.251

How beautiful France is.
'How beautiful my love is... ' thought Fanny.
Inside the plane, there was the smell of fog and maple trees.
The planes would fly low enough just above the trees that you could smell the scent.

--- p.276