Cop

a journalist infiltrates the police
Valentin Gendrot (trans. Frank Wynne)

‘Vivid and engrossing.’

Sean Hickey, Irish Examiner

‘Informative.’

Alastair Mabbott, The Herald

View all reviews

‘An explosive new book by an investigative journalist has drawn fresh attention to police brutality and racism in France … Chronicles the author’s training and the six months he spent as a police officer in one of Paris’ poorest districts … its vivid portrayal underlines how France’s history of racism and present-day police tactics have remained relatively unexamined.’

Matt Bradley, NBC News

The story of a French journalist who infiltrated the country's police force, revealing a culture of racism and violence in which officers act with impunity.

What happens behind the walls of a police station? In order to answer this question, undercover journalist Valentin Gendrot puts his life on hold for two years. He decides to undertake training and become a police officer. Several months later, Gendrot is working in a police station in one of the tough northern arrondissements of Paris, where relations between the law and locals are strained.

Gendrot hides nothing. He witnesses police brutality, racism, blunders, and cover-ups. But he also sees the oppressive working conditions that officers endure, and mourns the tragic suicide of a colleague.

Asking important questions about who holds institutional power and how we can hold them to account, Cop is a gripping exposé of a world never before seen by outsiders.

‘Vivid and engrossing.’

Sean Hickey, Irish Examiner

‘Informative.’

Alastair Mabbott, The Herald

View all reviews

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Details

Format:Paperback

Size: 210mm × 135mm

Extent:240pp

ISBN (13):9781922310774

RRP:$29.99

Pub date:28 Sep 2021

High-res cover:Download Image

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AUTHOR

Valentin Gendrot

Born in 1988, Valentin Gendrot worked on local newspapers and radio after graduating from journalism college, and carried out several undercover investigations — including working on a Toyota production line and in a Lidl supermarket — before joining the Paris police force.

TRANSLATOR

Frank Wynne

Frank Wynne is an Irish literary translator, writer, and editor. He has translated numerous French and Hispanic authors including Michel Houellebecq, Patrick Modiano, Javier Cercas, and Virginie Despentes. Over a career spanning more than twenty years, his work has earned him the IMPAC Dublin Literary Award, and the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize, and he was twice awarded both the Scott Moncrieff Prize and the Premio Valle Inclán. Most recently, his translation of Animalia by Jean-Baptiste del Amo won the 2020 Republic of Consciousness Prize. He has edited two major anthologies, Found in Translation: 100 of the finest short stories ever translated (2018) and QUEER: LGBT writing from ancient times to yesterday (2021).