On the Line

Judges' comments

Translated from French 

On the Line is a novel in verse and an extended ode to solidarity to working-class labourers all over the world. French author Joseph Ponthus’ book is an intensely lyrical and confessional account of one man’s everyday life working in food packaging factories and slaughterhouses. The compelling mix of the private world of experience and the searingly political context profoundly links it to French literary tradition, from Dumas and Hugo to Apollinaire and Claudel. 

Ponthus’ sudden death in 2021 silenced one of France’s finest younger literary voices, one that went far beyond the personal and innovatively bringing in the entire troubled social context, veering between verve and exhaustion, hopefulness and despair. Eruptions of slang and wily puns make this translation a tricky matter, but Stephanie Smee wonderfully renders the youthful tone for Australian and other Anglophone readers.