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{{Short description|1969 novel by Georges Perec}}
{{other uses|Void (disambiguation)}}
{{more citations needed|date=March 2013}}
{{Use dmy dates|date=May 2024}}
{{Infobox book
| name          = A Void
| title_orig    = La Disparition
| translator    = [[Gilbert Adair]]
| image         = A-Void.jpg
| caption       = Cover of the English translation of ''La Disparition''
| author        = [[Georges Perec]]
| illustrator   =
| cover_artist  =
| country       = France
| language      = French
| series        =
| genre         = 
| publisher     = {{ubl|[[Gallimard]] (orig.) | [[The Harvill Press]] (Eng. trans.)}}
| pub_date      = 1969
| english_pub_date = 1995
| media_type    = Print ([[Hardcover]], [[Paperback]])
| pages         = 290 pp (Eng. trans. Hardcover)
| isbn          =  0-00-271119-2
| isbn_note     = (Eng. trans. Hardcover)
| oclc          = 31434932
| preceded_by   =
| followed_by   =
}}

'''''A Void''''', translated from the original French '''{{lang|fr|La Disparition}}''' ({{lit.}} "The Disappearance"), is a 300-page French [[lipogram]]matic novel, written in 1969 by [[Georges Perec]], entirely without using the letter ''[[e]]'', following [[Oulipo]] constraints. Perec would go on to write with the inverse constraint in ''Les Revenentes'', with only words containing the vowel “e” present in the work. [[Ian Monk]] would later translate ''Les Revenentes'' into English under the title ''The Exeter Text.''

==Translations==
It was translated into English by [[Gilbert Adair]], with the title ''A Void'', for which he won the [[Scott Moncrieff Prize]] in 1995.<ref>{{cite web |url=http://www.societyofauthors.org/scott-moncrieff-past-winners |title=List of prize winners at the Society of Authors website |accessdate=4 August 2012 |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20131105134816/http://www.societyofauthors.org/scott-moncrieff-past-winners |archive-date=5 November 2013 |url-status=dead  }}</ref> The Adair translation of the book also won the 1996 [[Firecracker Alternative Book Award]] for Fiction.<ref>{{cite web|url=http://www.readersread.com/awards/firecracker.htm|title=Firecracker Alternative Book Awards|work=ReadersRead.com|archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20090304133738/http://www.readersread.com/awards/firecracker.htm|archive-date=4 March 2009}}</ref>

Three other English translations are titled ''A Vanishing'' by [[Ian Monk]],<ref>{{Cite book|last=Levin Becker|first=Daniel|title=Many subtle channels : in praise of potential literature|date=2012|publisher=Harvard University Press|isbn=978-0-674-06962-6|location=Cambridge, Mass.|oclc=794004240}}</ref> ''Vanish'd!'' by John Lee,<ref>{{Cite book|last1=Bensimon|first1=Paul|url=https://books.google.com/books?id=TYTT0pAreNcC|title=La lecture du texte traduit|last2=français|first2=Centre de recherches en traduction et stylistique comparée de l'anglais et du|date=1995|publisher=Presses Sorbonne Nouvelle|isbn=978-2-87854-098-7|language=fr}}</ref> and ''Omissions''  by Julian West.<ref>{{Cite book |title=Enjeux du jeu de mots : Perspectives linguistiques et littéraires|date=2015 |editor1=Esme Winter-Froemel |editor2=Angelika Zirker|isbn=978-3-11-040834-8|location=Berlin/Boston|oclc=1013955053 |publisher=De Gruyter}}</ref>

All translators have imposed upon themselves a similar lipogrammatic constraint to the original, avoiding the most commonly used letter of the [[alphabet]]. This precludes the use of words normally considered essential such as {{lang|fr|je}} ("I"), {{lang|fr|et}} ("and"), and {{lang|fr|le}} (masculine "the") in French, as well as "me", "be", and "the" in English. The Spanish version contains no ''[[a]]'', which is the second most commonly used letter in the Spanish language (first being ''e''), while the Russian version contains no [[O (Cyrillic)|о]]. The Japanese version does not use syllables containing the sound "i" ({{lang|ja|[[I (kana)|い]]}}, {{lang|ja|[[Ki (kana)|き]]}}, {{lang|ja|[[Shi (kana)|し]]}}, etc.) at all.

{| class="wikitable"
|+ Other languages translations
|-
! Language !! Author !! Title !! Year
|-
|German || Eugen Helmlé || {{lang|de|Anton Voyls Fortgang}} || 1986
|-
|Italian || Piero Falchetta || {{lang|it|La scomparsa}} || 1995
|-
|Spanish || Hermes Salceda || {{lang|es|El secuestro}} || 1997 
|-
|Swedish || Sture Pyk || {{lang|sv|Försvinna}} || 2000
|-
|Russian || Ales Astashonok-Zhgirovsky || {{lang|ru|Исчезновение}} [''Ischeznovenie''] || 2001
|-
|Russian || Valeriy Kislov || {{lang|ru|Исчезание}} [''Ischezanie''] || 2005
|-
|Turkish || Cemal Yardımcı || {{lang|tr|Kayboluş}} || 2006 
|-
|Dutch || Guido van de Wiel || {{lang|nl|'t Manco}} || 2009
|-
|Romanian || Serban Foarta || {{lang|ro|Disparitia}} || 2010
|-
|Japanese || Shuichiro Shiotsuka || {{lang|ja|煙滅}} [''Emmetsu''] || 2010
|-
|Croatian || Vanda Mikšić || {{lang|hr|Ispario}} || 2012
|-
|Portuguese || José Roberto "Zéfere" Andrades Féres || {{lang|pt|O Sumiço}} || 2016
|-
|Catalan || Adrià Pujol Cruells || {{lang|ca|L'eclipsi}} || 2017
|-
|Polish || René Koelblen and Stanisław Waszak || {{lang|pl|Zniknięcia}} || 2022
|-
|Finnish || Ville Keynäs || {{lang|fi|Häviäminen}} || 2023
|}

==Plot summary==
''A Void''{{'s}} plot follows a group of individuals looking for a missing companion, Anton Vowl. It is in part a [[parody]] of ''[[noir fiction|noir]]'' and [[horror fiction]], with many stylistic tricks, gags, plot twists, and a grim conclusion. On many occasions it implicitly talks about its own lipogrammatic limitation, highlighting its unusual syntax. ''A Void''{{'s}} protagonists finally work out which symbol is missing, but find it a hazardous topic to discuss, as any who try to bypass this story's constraint risk fatal injury. [[Philip Howard (journalist)|Philip Howard]], writing a lipogrammatic appraisal of ''A Void'' in his column ''Lost Words'', said: "This is a story chock-full of plots and sub-plots, of loops within loops, of trails in pursuit of trails, all of which allow its author an opportunity to display his customary virtuosity as an avant-gardist magician, acrobat and clown."

==Major themes==
Both of Georges Perec's parents died in [[World War II]]: his father as a soldier and his mother in the [[Holocaust]]. He was brought up by his aunt and uncle after surviving the war. [[Warren Motte]] interprets the absence of the letter ''e'' in the book as a metaphor for Perec's own sense of loss and incompleteness:<ref name="wmcontext">{{cite journal|url=https://web.archive.org/web/20170321222138/http://www.dalkeyarchive.com/reading-georges-perec/|title=Reading Georges Perec|journal=[[Context (journal)|Context]]|issue=11|publisher=Dalkey Archive Press|accessdate=28 July 2014}}</ref>

{{cquote|The absence of a sign is always the sign of an absence, and the absence of the ''E'' in ''A Void'' announces a broader, cannily coded discourse on loss, catastrophe, and mourning. Perec cannot say the words {{lang|fr|père}} ["father"], {{lang|fr|mère}} ["mother"], {{lang|fr|parents}} ["parents"], {{lang|fr|famille}} ["family"] in his novel, nor can he write the name ''Georges Perec''. In short, each "void" in the novel is abundantly furnished with meaning, and each points toward the existential void that Perec grappled with throughout his youth and early adulthood. A strange and compelling parable of survival becomes apparent in the novel, too, if one is willing to reflect on the struggles of a Holocaust orphan trying to make sense out of absence, and those of a young writer who has chosen to do without the letter that is the beginning and end of {{lang|fr|écriture}} ["writing"].}}

==Versions==
* {{cite book|author=Georges Perec|title=La disparition|publisher=Gallimard|year=1969|isbn=2-07-071523-X}}
* {{cite book|author=Georges Perec|translator=Gilbert Adair|title=A Void (paperback)|publisher=The Harvill Press|year=1994|isbn=1-86046-098-4|url=https://archive.org/details/void00pere}}
* {{cite book|author=Georges Perec|translator=Gilbert Adair|title=A Void (hardcover)|publisher=The Harvill Press|year=1994|isbn=0-00-271119-2|url=https://archive.org/details/void00pere_1}}
* {{cite book|author=Georges Perec|translator=Eugen Helmlé|title=Anton Voyls Fortgang|year=1991|isbn=3-499-12857-8}}
* {{cite book|author=Georges Perec|translator=Cemal Yardımcı|title=Kayboluş|date=April 2013|isbn=978-975-539-472-5}}
* {{cite book|author=Georges Perec|translator=Guido van de Wiel|title='t Manco|publisher=De Arbeiderspers|year=2009|isbn=978-90-295-6766-4}}
* {{cite book|author=Georges Perec|title=El secuestro|publisher=[[Anagrama]]|year=1997|isbn=978-84-339-0836-0}}
* {{cite book|author=Georges Perec|translator=Valéry Kislov|title=Istchezanie|publisher=Ivan Limbakh|year=2004|isbn=978-5-89059-060-2}}
* {{cite book|author=Georges Perec|translator=Gilbert Adair|title=A Void (paperback)|publisher=David R. Godine|year=2005|isbn=978-1-56792-296-7}}
* {{cite book|author=Georges Perec|translator=René Koelblen and Stanisław Waszak|title=Zniknięcia (paperback)|publisher=Lokator|year=2022|isbn=978-83-63056-88-9}}

==See also==
{{portal|Novels}}
* ''[[Gadsby (novel)|Gadsby]]'', another novel without the letter ''e''
* ''[[Le Train de Nulle Part]]'', a novel without any verbs

==References==
<references/>

==External links==
* [http://perso.wanadoo.fr/jb.guinot/pages/GPdispar.html Bibliography of secondary works on ''La Disparition'']
* [http://www-control.eng.cam.ac.uk/hu/Perec.html Brief excerpt from the Adair translation]
* [http://www.litt-and-co.org/citations_litteraires/20e-cita/l-q_20e/perec_disparition.htm Preface in French]
* [http://dannyreviews.com/h/A_Void.html Review by Danny Yee]
* [https://web.archive.org/web/20051229225013/http://ntvmsnbc.com.tr/news/354039.asp News about the Turkish translation]
* https://web.archive.org/web/20130124122327/http://magazines.russ.ru/nlo/2010/106/ about translation in Russian
* [http://danielafranco.com/collected/perec/ Collection of book covers for translations of ''La Disparition'']
{{Georges Perec}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Void, A}}
[[Category:Novels by Georges Perec]]
[[Category:1969 French novels]]
[[Category:Lipograms]]
[[Category:Metafictional novels]]
[[Category:Oulipian works]]