Escupire Sobre Tu Tumba

Read it, if you dare. But you will not forget it.

Published in 1946, it was a "roman noir" pastiche of American hard-boiled fiction. It was eventually banned in France in 1949 for its extreme sexual and violent content. Vian famously died of heart failure in 1959 while attending the premiere of a film adaptation he strongly disliked. Escupire Sobre Tu Tumba

The book was an immediate commercial success. It sold over 100,000 copies in months. But the establishment was horrified. Catholic moralists, conservative critics, and mainstream newspapers condemned it as “depraved,” “pornographic,” and “anti-French.” They demanded censorship. Read it, if you dare