November may be said to have four sets of protagonists: a group of night- shift workers in southeast France; their friends, relatives, lovers, and acquaintances; the factory in which they work; and the work itself. Christopher Woodall is a writer and translator. His translations include Piero Camporesi’s Exotic Brew and Lydie Salvayre’s The Company of Ghosts. November is his first novel. This novel takes place over the course of two and a half hours one evening in November 1976 at the plastic die-casting workshop where these men are employed. Staggering in scope, November is a virtuosic performance -a contemporary take on the classical modernist novel, anatomizing the ways we live, think, and labor; what we have lost; and what we are losing.