Heartsnatcher

Heartsnatcher (French: L'Arrache-cœur) is a 1953 novel by French writer Boris Vian. It tells the story of a psychoanalyst who is newly arrived in a very superstitious village where absurd events occur. The heartsnatcher of the title was first described in Vian's earlier novel Froth on the daydream. It is a macabre invention, an implement to gorily extract the traditional seat of human emotions. One victim is a philosopher named Jean-Sol Partre, in reference to notable thinker Jean-Paul Sartre.