Jérôme Ferrari explores expatriation and immigration in "A Very Brief Theory of Hell"

Thirteen years after winning the Prix Goncourt for *The Sermon on the Fall of Rome*, Jérôme Ferrari has published the second volume of his triptych *Tales of the Native and the Traveler*. Following *North Sentinel*, which focused on Corsica and mass tourism, *A Very Brief Theory of Hell* shifts the focus to Abu Dhabi. The novel juxtaposes two distinct trajectories: that of a French professor living in the United Arab Emirates and that of a Sri Lankan woman who has come to work there to support her family. By bringing these two experiences of displacement together, the writer is less interested in travel itself than in power dynamics, the illusions of a clear conscience, and the very real difficulty of truly encountering the other.

Two ways of leaving, two realities that are not alike

The book is based on a stark contrast. The French narrator experiences life abroad from a protected position: he is a professor, well-housed, well-paid, and settled in a comfortable environment. His departure is a form of expatriation, with all that it implies in terms of choice, mobility, and status. In contrast, the trajectory of the Sri Lankan worker follows a completely different logic: leaving to send money back home, accepting a subordinate position, and surviving within a system that exploits her presence as much as it depends on it.

It is this asymmetry that Jérôme Ferrari places at the heart of the novel. The two characters live in the same city, cross paths, sometimes speak, but they inhabit different worlds. One has the leisure to reflect on his unease, his boredom, his crumbling relationship. The other must first and foremost survive, work, and make it work. The novel shows very precisely how a relationship can remain marked by social inequality, even when it is cloaked in politeness, generosity, or good intentions.

A novel that extends the major themes of his work

This new book is a clear continuation of Jérôme Ferrari's work. In an interview on France Culture's "Midis de Culture" program, the writer explained that he is interested in "that which transcends the will of individuals," a phrase that aptly illuminates his fictional work. His characters are never defined solely by their psychology; they are embedded in historical, social, and cultural frameworks that shape their actions, their illusions, and their failures.

This logic was already at work in his Corsican books. In the same interview, he revisited his relationship with the island, his late acquisition of the Corsican language, and the desire, shared with other writers, to give it true “literary dignity.” He also reminded us that clichés are not simply errors of perception: according to him, “they construct an identity.” A Very Brief Theory of Hell applies this perspective to another territory. In it, Ferrari dismantles the seductive images of expatriation, cosmopolitanism, and openness to the world to reveal what they conceal: rigid hierarchies, parallel existences, and a coexistence that does not necessarily lead to genuine encounter.

A short but very practical book on the hierarchies of the contemporary world

The novel is striking in its restraint and precision. Ferrari avoids embellishment; he describes straightforward situations, ordinary gestures, and recurring misunderstandings. It is precisely this starkness that gives the book its power. Through a story set in the Gulf, he speaks very clearly about the present: about what the words “expatriate,” “immigrant,” “aid,” “respect,” and “integration” encompass, and about everything that separates those who move by choice from those who leave out of necessity.

A Very Brief Theory of Hell is therefore not an abstract novel about other worlds. It is a very precise text on how several worlds can share the same space without ever truly meeting. In this, Jérôme Ferrari continues to build a body of work that is both grounded and political, attentive to places, statuses, and the subtle violence of social relations.