This volume gathers some of the fruits of the March 2006 Conference held in Grenoble, France on the work of contemporary American writer Percival Everett. The papers given by both French and American scholars in the presence of the author offered a cross-cultural, wide-ranging perspective on his work, and brought to the fore the main issues at stake in his creation: formal ones, such as metadiscourse, fake mimesis, the functions of descriptions, and the many uses of allegory, but also ethical issues, namely the authorâs African-American origin and the expectations it raises in his readership, finally, Everettâs main concern remains with language, and how it is transformed and reinvigorated through subtle sound and rhythmic effects.