Hervé Le Tellier

Hervé Le Tellier is a French writer, linguist, and president of the Oulipo (Ouvroir de littérature potentielle), the experimental literary collective founded by Raymond Queneau and François Le Lionnais. Born in Paris in 1957, he has been a member of Oulipo since 1992 and embodies the group's spirit of playful intellectual rigor. Le Tellier is the author of numerous novels, essays, and humorous works. L'Anomalie (The Anomaly), his 2020 Prix Goncourt winner, became a publishing phenomenon: a high-concept literary thriller in which a passenger jet flying from Paris to New York lands twice — and the same plane, carrying the same passengers, lands again three months later. The novel uses this premise to explore identity, fate, and what it means to be human. L'Anomalie sold over one million copies in France within months of its publication, an extraordinary commercial success for a literary novel. It was translated into dozens of languages and became an international bestseller. As president of Oulipo, Le Tellier has also edited numerous anthologies and maintained the tradition of formal literary experimentation that distinguishes the collective. He is a celebrated figure in French literary culture and a prolific contributor to Le Monde's literary pages.