2026
Texts by Michael Van den Abeele
Edited by Benjamin Thorel and Elsa Vettier
Proofreading by Lou Ellingson
Design: Victoire Le Bars
Published by CRAC Alsace and After 8 Books

ISBN: 9782492650260
11 x 18 cm
116 pages
English
15 euros

Available at CRAC Alsace’s bookshop
Order online (After 8 Books)

Starting from the trivial or rooted into fantasy, the poems and short stories collected in Learning to Count—Michael Van den Abeele’s second book of this kind—veer into the grotesque or the bizarre, revealing the glitches of a reality that is just waiting to hallucinate. In the eponymous text, Learning to Count, Van den Abeele reflects on an iconic photograph of the Ramones, standing against a wall, all dressed in identical jeans. Is this forest of legs ornament, or crime? Do ripped trousers still hold any political significance? What social beliefs make a community?

On Thursday, October 22, 2026, at 7 pm, launch of Michael Van den Abeele’s book, Learning to Count, at After 8 Books, 41 rue du Faubourg Saint-Martin, 75010 Paris.