Georges Perec’s W, or the Memory of Childhood, retells a story the author wrote as a child, of W, a far-off island where all of life revolves around sport. But we also get, in alternate chapters, a curious autobiography, where the author tries to recover his mostly forgotten childhood: growing up in Paris during World War 2, losing his father in the early fighting of that war when he 4 years old, and losing his mother soon after, as she was taken to the concentration camps. The author assures us that both halves are needed to tell the story, and although at first they seem unrelated, the connections slowly pile up, to devastating effect.

It’s a curious and haunting book, and Chris and Suzanne discuss its take on a monomaniacal approach to sport, its exploration of the slipperiness of memory and language, and (surprisingly enough in a book with so much loss) its profound sense of play.

Content warning: There’s a discussion of sexual violence that lasts about two minutes; we give a heads up. Also, this was an ill-fated recording session, so apologies for the occasionally dodgy audio.