Vian, Boris

Vian, Boris bôrēsˈ vyäN [key], 1920–59, French novelist. He patterned his literary style on that of terse American crime fiction. His best-known work is J'irai cracher sur vos tombes [I will spit on your graves] (1946), a novel about a fugitive black man hunted by whites. Other novels include L'arrache-cœur (1953; tr. Heartsnatcher, 1968) and Les bâtisseurs d'empire (1959; tr. The Empire Builders, 1967).

See biography by A. Cismaru (1974).

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