Paris: Editions Albion Michel, (1946). Considered one of Hellens' strangest and most powerful novels, this is the story of a criminal called Marcel Morel whose project is to be equal to God. Although Hellens was of pure Flemish descent, he wrote only in French and although he published over 120 books, only one has been published in English. In an interview in 1970, Nabakov commented about the importance of Hellens as a precursor to the "New novels" - "I tried to get someone in the States to publish him - Laughlin, perhaps - but nothing came of it. Hellens would get excellent reviews, was beloved in Belgium . . It is a shame that he is read less than that awful Monsieur Camus and even more awful Monsieur Sartre." Hellens' work prefigured Surrealism - in much of his fiction he conveys a sense of unreality - and (according to the award-winning translator, Edward Gauvin) he helped to evolve the fantastic away from horror and towards a magical realism. En francais / in French. 414 pp.