Description

A disillusioned Parisian writer finds inspiration in the ordinary lives of his neighbours, the Martins.

‘A wonderful surprise’ L’Express

Is it true that every life is the stuff of novels? Or are some people just too ordinary?

This is the question a struggling Parisian writer asks when he challenges himself to write about the first person he sees when he steps outside his apartment. Secretly hoping to meet the beautiful woman who occasionally smokes on his street, he instead sets eyes on octogenarian Madeleine. She’s happy to become the subject of his project, but first she needs to put her shopping away…

Wondering if his project is doomed to be hopelessly banal, he soon finds himself tangled in the lives of Madeleine’s family. Though calm on the surface, the Martins have secrets, troubles and woes, and the writer discovers that the most compelling story is that of an ordinary life.

Publisher Review

'By entering the fabric of an everyday French family, he tells a story of life as it really is, with its minor dramas and major sorrows' Le Figaro Litteraire 'Clever, well-written, and brilliantly rises to the impossible challenge the author set himself: telling the story of uneventful lives ... Perhaps the most "Foenkinosien" novel of a unique writer who swims against the current of French literary trends. His style, whilst melancholic, is insuppressibly optimistic. If you had to file him in a manual of literary history, you might class him alongside the writers of the eighteenth century, but with the playfulness of Tintin' L'Obs 'It's hard to resist getting caught up in the (literary) game when the experiment turns into one of the warm-hearted, wickedly funny comedies the Delicacy author is so good at ... A talented author who ... has always known how to reinvent himself' Le Figaro 'The book's success lies in its comic reversal of roles: it's the characters who lead the author around by the nose ... David Foenkinos is at his best in this playful novel' Elle 'There's a message to be taken from Foenkinos's trademark lovely, clever comedy - which is, of course, a fiction from start to finish: the writer is never a neutral observer' Le Journal du Dimanche 'A wonderful surprise - light, fizzy, at once uplifting and melancholic and, above all, filled with twists, role reversals and self-deprecation. The Delicacy author's trademark is well and truly stamped on this book: a serious author who doesn't take himself seriously ... With the lightest of touches, the author takes us behind the scenes of literary creation, and into the eternal nebula of human relationships' L'Express 'Playing with the rules of autofiction and family comedy, Foenkinos has created a multi-layered novel' Le Parisien