A raucous, macabre tale of failure from the filmmaker-turned-writer whose work has garnered cultish attention in recent years

Georges Maman is a down-and-out actor sinking into despair and no longer able to scrape by, failing to make his mark even in the porno industry; Dagonard is a loudmouthed camera assistant who executes his refusal to read a room with almost surgical skill. Their paths cross one evening in a bar, and the two proceed to share a night in Paris: drink, dinner and psychological torture. Drawing from his own aborted career as an assistant director in the film industry, Jean-Pierre Martinet's last novel (before he quit writing) describes a sordid, cynical and disturbingly humorous descent into the hell of failure and the company we keep there. With Their Hearts in Their Boots is joined by "At the Back of the Courtyard on the Right," an equally dark and lengthy poetic essay inspired by the work of Henri Calet, a kindred literary spirit whose dimmed star Martinet helped to resuscitate through his brief career as a literary critic. Jean-Pierre Martinet (1944-93) wrote only a handful of novels, including what is largely regarded as his masterpiece: the psychosexual study of horror and madness Jerome. William Boyle is from Brooklyn. His books include Gravesend, which was nominated for the Grand Prix de Litterature Policiere in France.