The 7th Function of Language

( French - La septième fonction du langage - 2015 )

novel by Laurent Binet

translated by Sam Taylor

Published: Harvill Secker - hardback - 2017 ( UK )
ISBN: 1910701580 / 9781910701584,

Vintage Digital - e-book - 2017
eISBN: 1473524636 / 9781473524637
ASIN: B01JNZ6E2U

Farrar, Straus & Giroux - hardback - 2017 ( US )
ISBN: 0374261563/ 9780374261566

Farrar, Straus & Giroux - e-book - 2017
eISBN: 0374715084 / 9780374715083
ASIN: B01NARGQEU

Blackstone Publishing - audiobook - 2017 ( UK )
ISBN: 1538475995 / 9781538475997

Blackstone Audio, Inc. - audiobook - 2017 ( US )
ISBN: 1470863294 / 9781470863296
ASIN: B073X55Q61

Vintage - paperback - 2018 ( UK )
ISBN: 1784703192 / 9781784703196

PIcador - paperback - 2018 ( US )
ISBN: 1250181682 / 9781250181688



synopsis
Roland Barthes is knocked down in a Paris street by a laundry van. It’s February 1980 and he has just come from lunch with Francois Mitterrand. Barthes dies soon afterwards. History tells us it was an accident.
But what if it were an assassination? What if Barthes was carrying a document of unbelievable, global importance? A document explaining the seventh function of language – an idea so powerful it gives whoever masters it the ability to convince anyone, in any situation, to do anything.
Police Captain Jacques Bayard and his reluctant accomplice Simon Herzog set off on a chase that takes them from the corridors of power to backstreet saunas and midnight meetings. What they discover is a worldwide conspiracy involving the President, murderous Bulgarians and a secret international debating society.

awards
Prix du roman Fnac 2015
Prix Interallié 2015