Boris Vian was not just a novelist, but a jazz musician, critic, poet, and playwright. He mingled with cultural icons like Miles Davis, Duke Ellington, Raymond Queneau, Jean Cocteau, and Jean-Paul Sartre in the vibrant Parisian scene of the forties and fifties. Beyond his musical ventures, he translated American hard-boiled crime novels and stumbled upon the works of an African-American writer named Vernon Sullivan.

I Spit on Your Graves is a gripping tale of a 'white Negro' seeking revenge on a small Southern town for his brother's lynching by an all-white mob. This novel, upon release, became a bestseller in France and controversially linked to a copycat crime. Initially believed to be Sullivan's work, it was later revealed to be Vian's own creation under a pseudonym!

This book is an extremely violent and sexy hard-boiled novel that delves into themes of racial and class prejudice, revenge, and justice. It stands out as a literary oddity, having been penned by a jazz-loving white Frenchman who had never set foot in America.

The internationally renowned novel about the life and death of Jesus Christ. Hailed as a masterpiece by critics worldwide, The Last Temptation of Christ is a monumental reinterpretation of the Gospels that brilliantly fleshes out Christ’s Passion. This literary rendering of the life of Jesus Christ has courted controversy since its publication by depicting a Christ far more human than the one seen in the Bible. He is a figure who is gloriously divine but earthy and human, a man like any other—subject to fear, doubt, and pain.

In elegant, thoughtful prose Nikos Kazantzakis, one of the greats of modern literature, follows this Jesus as he struggles to live out God’s will for him, powerfully suggesting that it was Christ’s ultimate triumph over his flawed humanity, when he gave up the temptation to run from the cross and willingly laid down his life for mankind, that truly made him the venerable redeemer of men.