"Enter the catatonic heroes of Albert Cossery’s Laziness in the Fertile Valley, exercising their right to do nothing. In a dilapidated villa in the Nile Delta, a family sleeps all day, rising only for meals. The cadaverous Galal, oldest of three brothers and friar of somnolence, staggers into the dining room in a dirty nightgown. Some say he is an artist. 'Why are you awake?' he cries in abject horror...."

…. from GOD IS WITH THE LAZY, afterword to Albert Cossery’s LAZINESS IN THE FERTILE VALLEY, translated by William Goyen, New Directions, 2013. Published online at The Millions. Excerpted on Bookforum.

A PDF is here.

And more on COSSERY—

TEETH MARKS: On three early poems by Albert Cossery, translated into English for the first time by Jocelyn Spaar, in The Paris Review online, December 2013.

In French: Le prince de la paresse. Publié dans le magazine Books, mars 2016.