Jérôme works for Hurtebise publishing house, where his job is to ‘shape’ other people’s novels. This essentially means reworking best-selling author Bannister’s abysmal pulp. Bannister churns out novels, one after the other, all of them vaguely thriller-ish, sentimental-ish, and completely worthless. It is Jérôme’s job to give them a tone, a style, some kind of structure.
But his real passion is Santenac, the genius, the author of three books, family stories written in the early 1960s. Three books and then nothing: all of a sudden, Santenac disappeared, and was never seen again. Jérôme and his childhood friend, a journalist called Jean-Paul, have one obsession: to find Santenac, and the books that he has written in his hideaway. One particular morning, as he has come in to pick up his next instalment of Bannister’s crap, Jérôme gets a phone call from Jean-Paul: the journalist has found Santenac, he knows where the writer is hiding. They leave at once, travelling to a remote part of the Aveyron where their dream will become reality: for both of them, Santenac is far more than a novelist. His books are a question of life and death, especially for Jérôme, who finds in them that which he never had: a family.
Alain Rémond is an author and a journalist who writes for La Croix and Marianne. He has published Chaque jour est un adieu, Un jeune homme est passé and Comme une chanson dans la nuit with Seuil.
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