Fear and Trembling (novel)

Fear and Trembling

English language paperback edition
Author	Amélie Nothomb
Original title	Stupeur et tremblements
Translator	Adriana Hunter
Country	Belgium
Language	French
Genre	Novel
Publication date	1999
Media type	Print
Pages	174
ISBN
Preceded by	The Stranger Next Door
Followed by	The Character of Rain

Fear and Trembling (original title: Stupeur et tremblements, which means "Amazement and trembling") is a novel by Amélie Nothomb, first published in 1999, and translated into English by Adriana Hunter. It was awarded the Grand Prix du roman de l'Académie française that year.

Amélie, a young Belgian woman who spent the first five years of her life in Japan, signs a one-year contract as a translator at the prestigious company Yumimoto. Beginning at the bottom of the corporate ladder, Amélie manages to descend even lower. During her time at Yumimoto, she is the direct subordinate of Fubuki Mori, whose friendly demeanor quickly disappears when Amélie unwittingly oversteps herself.

Bored and frustrated with how she is apparently not assigned to do anything productive, Amélie tries to take the initiative by memorizing the company's list of employees and delivering the mail, only to be reprimanded for "stealing someone else's job." When she is assigned to photocopy the departmental manager's documents, which she discovers are the rules to his golf club, Amelie is forced to redo her work when the manager returns it with the complaint that the copies are off-centre and that she must not use the feeder for the copier. While she is redoing the task, the kindly Mr. Tenshi takes notice of her and asks for her help in drafting a report about the new method of manufacturing reduced-fat butter developed in Belgium. Amélie's contributions to Mr. Tenshi's report make is a big success and she requests not to be given credit. Though it seems her transfer to Mr. Tenshi's department is imminent, Fubuki feels offended as this constitutes a violation of the company's hierarchy and she exposes everything to the vice-president, who severely scolds Mr Tenshi and Amélie, and sees to it that Amélie writes no more reports and strictly sticks to doing duties assigned by Ms Mori.

Although advised by Mr Tenshi not to do so, Amélie decides to confront Ms Mori and talk to her personally. This encounter can be seen as the main juncture of the novel, as both characters feel the other should apologise, but at the same time each of them fails to recognise why she herself should do the same.

The main difference is that while Amélie feels her progress in her career from useless work to the place where she actually can use her skills has been hindered for no other reason than maliciousness, Ms Mori interprets Amélie's move as being against her as Amélie was trying to pass her by, thus violating the correct hierarchy. Ms Mori had to suffer and work hard for years to achieve her position and it was inconceivable to her to imagine that Amélie might achieve the same level of hierarchy within only a couple of weeks.