The Emotions

In this scintillating meditation on existential dread, Toussaint (Football) replays the aftermath of the Brexit referendum from the perspective of a European Commission analyst who specializes in forecasting the future. In an atmosphere of “poisonous decay” following the vote, Jean Detrez attends an international conference in Paris and encounters a rising star in his field named Scott Adams, a prophet among bureaucrats who divines in the election of Donald Trump a temporal shift toward the apocalypse. Scott’s pronouncement scandalizes his colleagues and their certainty in liberal civilization. Meanwhile, Jean’s private world is already in ruin, following the death of his father and the collapse of his marriage. The novel’s second part focuses on the funeral, during which Jean rekindles his relationship with his first wife, Elisabetta, coaxing some hope out of the doom. In the book’s enigmatic third and final section, Jean thinks back on the catastrophes of April 2010, when the eruption of a long-dormant Icelandic volcano upended air travel but led him into a memorable love affair. Pairing amorous adventures with eschatological musings, Toussaint cannily confronts the impossibility of the future with the fleeting hope of the present: “I wasn’t sure where we were going,” Jean admits at one point. It’s a stimulating ride. (Dec.)