Rights sold to: USA/world rights (Other Press), Germany (dtv), Italy (Rizzoli), Spain (Destino), The Netherlands (De Geus), Hungary (Ab Ovo), Israel (Matar), Korea (Yolimwon), Vietnam (Nha Nam), Taiwan (Acquarius), China (Shanghai 99), Poland (Ksiaznica), Norway (Cappelen), Bulgaria (Kama), Brazil (Intrinseca), Greece (Melani) and Turkey (Yapi Kredi).
"Dear Mathieu, dear Thomas, When you were small I was often tempted to offer you a book. A ‘Tintin’ for instance. We could have discussed it afterwards. I know the Tintin books well. I have read them all several times. I never did it. It was not worth it, you did not know how to read. You will never know how to read. Until the end, your presents will consist of building blocks and toy cars…
I wrote this book for them because I don’t want them to be forgotten, to survive only in the form of a picture on an invalidity card. And there is the guilt. I was never a very good father. Often, they got on my nerves. You had to have the patience of an angel, and I am no angel.
When one talks about handicapped children, one puts on a suitably concerned expression, as if talking about a catastrophe. For once, I would like to do so with a smile. They did make me laugh, albeit involuntarily, with their pranks. They gave me a number of advantages that parents of normal children did not enjoy. I never had to worry about their studies and their professional future. We never had to decide between sciences or humanities. Most of all, for all these years, I was granted a free road tax disk. Thanks to them, I was able to drive large American cars.” – Jean-Louis Fournier
Jean-Louis Fournier is the author of a number of successful essays and novels where the humour and humanity of his style always shines, amongst others Grammaire française et impertinente (Payot, 1992 ), Il a jamais tué personne mon papa (Stock, 1999), Mon dernier cheveu noir (Editions Anne Carrière, 2006). Où on va, papa ? may well be his most desperately funny book to-date.