fb pixcode

NOVELS AND SHORT STORIES BY AUTHOR

PUBLISHER
TamTam Books

BOOK FORMAT
Paperback, 8.5 x 5.5 in. / 261 pgs.

PUBLISHING STATUS
Pub Date
Out of print

DISTRIBUTION
D.A.P. Exclusive
Catalog: SPRING 2012 p. 47   

PRODUCT DETAILS
ISBN 9780966234633 TRADE
List Price: $18.00 CAD $25.50 GBP £16.00

AVAILABILITY
Not available

TERRITORY
WORLD

THE FALL 2025 ARTBOOK | D.A.P. CATALOG

Artbook | D.A.P. Catalog Cover Link
Preview our FALL 2025 catalog, featuring more than 500 new books on art, photography, design, architecture, film, music and visual culture.
  

TAMTAM BOOKS

Foam of the Daze

L'ecume des jours

By Boris Vian. Translated by Brian Harper.

Raymond Queneau called it the “most poignant love story of our time,” and Julio Cortázar said of its author: “I can’t think of another writer who can move me as surreptitiously as Vian does.” Boris Vian (1920–1959) was a songwriter, trumpet-player, poet, playwright and pataphysician, but is best remembered for his 1947 novel, Foam of the Daze, a jazz-fueled science-fiction romance that mingles bittersweet and surrealist absurdity with a melancholic meditation on the frailty of life. It tells the tale of Colin, a wealthy young dandy, and Chloe, his newly wedded wife who develops a terrible illness: a water lily in her lung. The supporting cast includes Chick, an obsessive collector of Jean-Sol Partre memorabilia; Colin’s libertine manservant Nicolas, a Jeeves for the jazz-age; the philosopher Jean-Sol Partre himself, Vian’s rib-poking tribute to his friend Jean-Paul Sartre and the pianocktail: a cocktail-mixing piano whose individual notes are tuned to liqueurs that mix incredible cocktails. Michel Gondry’s film adaptation of the novel, to star Audrey Tautou, will begin production in 2012.
PRAISE AND REVIEWS

Literary Hub

Now considered an important postwar French author—Foam on the Daze has sold millions of copies in France.

Foam of the Daze

STATUS: Out of print | 00/00/00

For assistance locating a copy, please see our list of recommended out of print specialists

FROM THE BOOK
"Colin finished dressing. Getting out of his bath, he had wrapped himself in an ample towel of fine fabric from which only his legs and torso were exposed. He took the vaporizer from the glass shelf and sprayed the perfumed liquid oil in his light-colored hair. His amber comb divided the silky mass into long orange strands identical to the furrows that a happy laborer traces with a fork in apricot jam. Colin put down his comb and, arming himself with a nail clipper, beveled the corners of his shaded eyelids to give mystery to his gaze. He had to repeat this often because they grew back quickly. He turned on the little light of the magnifying mirror and approached it to verify the state of his epidermis. Several blackheads were sticking out around the sides of his nose. Seeing themselves so ugly in the magnifying mirror, they quickly went back under the skin and, satisfied, Colin turned off the lamp. He took off the towel that girded his loins and passed one of the corners between his toes to absorb the last traces of moisture."
Excerpted from Foam of the Daze.

FORTHCOMING AND NEW: FICTION AND POETRY

Scorpions

SCORPIONS

Wakefield Press

ISBN: 9781962728102
USD $14.95
| CAD $21 UK £ 11.99

Pub Date: 10/14/2025
Forthcoming


The Last Man

THE LAST MAN

Image Text Ithaca Press

ISBN: 9781733497176
USD $35.00
| CAD $49 UK £ 28

Pub Date: 9/30/2025
Forthcoming


The Hill of Dreams

THE HILL OF DREAMS

Mandylion Press

ISBN: 9798988606154
USD $27.00
| CAD $38 UK £ 22

Pub Date: 10/28/2025
Forthcoming


The Gadfly

THE GADFLY

Mandylion Press

ISBN: 9798988606147
USD $27.00
| CAD $38 UK £ 22

Pub Date: 10/28/2025
Forthcoming


Elsie Venner

ELSIE VENNER

Mandylion Press

ISBN: 9798988606161
USD $27.00
| CAD $38 UK £ 22

Pub Date: 10/28/2025
Forthcoming


The Beginning of the East

THE BEGINNING OF THE EAST

Kaya Press

ISBN: 9781885030849
USD $18.95
| CAD $26.95 UK £ 14.99

Pub Date: 11/11/2025
Forthcoming


Ramblings in the West

RAMBLINGS IN THE WEST

Kaya Press

ISBN: 9781885030856
USD $18.95
| CAD $26.95 UK £ 14.99

Pub Date: 11/11/2025
Forthcoming


Blue Dragon, White Tiger

BLUE DRAGON, WHITE TIGER

Kaya Press

ISBN: 9781935717102
USD $19.95
| CAD $27.95 UK £ 14.99

Pub Date: 9/30/2025
Forthcoming


What We Owe the Dead

WHAT WE OWE THE DEAD

Set Margins’ publications

ISBN: 9789083499345
USD $22.00
| CAD $31

Pub Date: 9/30/2025
Forthcoming


Nebraska

NEBRASKA

The Song Cave

ISBN: 9798991298889
USD $18.95
| CAD $26.95 UK £ 14.99

Pub Date: 10/7/2025
Forthcoming


SchrummSchrumm, or The Sunday Quicksands Excursion

SCHRUMMSCHRUMM, OR THE SUNDAY QUICKSANDS EXCURSION

Wakefield Press

ISBN: 9781962728072
USD $19.95
| CAD $27.95 UK £ 14.99

Pub Date: 9/9/2025
Forthcoming


The Last Canterbury Tales

THE LAST CANTERBURY TALES

Wakefield Press

ISBN: 9781962728096
USD $16.95
| CAD $23.95 UK £ 13.99

Pub Date: 11/7/2025
Forthcoming