The French translation of writer Artem Chapeye’s novel T-Happiness will be published by Calmann-Lévy. Chapeye reported this.
According to the description, T-Happiness combines hallucinatory speculative fiction with psychological realism; narrative leaps with questions of life choices; the relationship between reality and fantasy; and the possibility of happiness in hard times. The protagonist is Viktor, who lives as a recluse and skilfully avoids manhunters. Around the book’s characters is depicted a “world that is burning and narrowing” and differs radically (or not so radically) from ours. The novel aims to raise the question of what happiness is.
The translation was done by Iryna Dmytryshyn. The French version is titled Voir la nuit fléchir et le vent changer (To See the Night Recede and the Wind Change).
«It’s a quote from Louis Aragon, one of the key figures of La Resistance, written in 1942, when the Nazi occupation was at its darkest. The night is a metaphor for the occupation — much as I call Russia either Darkness or Gloom. And it’s not entirely a metaphor, seeing how it is once again shelling power generation. The country of gloom is trying to plunge us into gloom, and the question is what we are going to do about it», Chapeye comments on the book’s title.
Chapeye adds that T-Happiness is about the choice between pink baby elephants and reality, between hiding in fantasies and an imagined past — and fighting for a real present and future; about the choice between resistance and capitulation.
“And about the fact that the choice truly exists. And about the fact that Darkness will pass. But not by itself”, Chapeye explains.
The translation will go on sale on 13 January 2027. It is currently available for pre-order on the Calmann-Lévy website for €21.90.
In Ukraine, the book was published by Publishing House 21 in 2026.
About Artem Chapeye:
- Ukrainian writer and serviceman;
- author of the books The Ukraine, Strange People, Not Born for War;
- Chapeye’s books have been translated into several foreign languages, including English, French, Italian, German, Danish, and others;
- the English translation of Not Born for War was included in The Washington Post’s list of the best books of 2025, and the French translation in Le Monde’s list of the best books of 2024;
- this year, the book The Ukraine was shortlisted for the Pierre-François Caillé Prize for the best translated book in France.
About Calmann-Lévy:
- one of France’s leading and oldest publishing houses, founded in 1836 by the Calmann-Lévy family from Phalsbourg (France);
- the publisher’s main areas of activity are fiction and essays;
- among the publisher’s authors are Victor Hugo, Honoré de Balzac, Stendhal, George Sand, Gustave Flaubert, Charles Baudelaire, Alexandre Dumas, and others.