From the prizewinning author ofHHhH, “the most insolent novel of the year” (L’Express) is a romp through the French intelligentsia of the twentieth century.Paris, 1980. The literary critic Roland Barthes dies—struck by a laundry van—after lunch with the presidential candidate François Mitterand. The world of letters mourns a tragic accident. But what if it wasn’t an accident at all? What if Barthes was . . . murdered?InThe Seventh Function of Language, Laurent Binet spins a m