HOW I BECAME STUPID, MARTIN PAGE

French publisher: LE DILLETTANTE

U.S. publisher: PENGUIN

Ignorance is bliss, or so hopes Antoine, the lead character in Martin Page’s stinging satire, How I Became Stupid, a modern day Candide with a Darwin-like sensibility. A twenty-five-year-old Aramaic scholar, Antoine has had it with being brilliant and deeply self-aware in todays culture. So tortured is he by the depth of his perception and understanding of himself and the world around him that he vows to denounce his intelligence by any means necessary in order to become stupid enough to be a happy, functioning member of society. What follows is a dark and hilarious odyssey as Antoine tries everything from alcoholism to stock-trading in order to lighten the burden of his brain on his soul.

A harmonious and surprising mixture of optimism and nihilism — La Vie Magazine

A wild yet powerful book — Elle