PAPA
What do you do when a little boy you’ve never met calls you daddy and says he wants to go home? Is it possible to carry on feeling jealous about a beloved woman who is now dead? How do you lose your job because of a free kick played by Michel Platini?
The imaginary situations in these short stories might seem outlandish or strange, perhaps even dreamlike. And yet they are about the most mundane and fundamental feelings in life: desire, a fear of ageing, aspiring to the impossible, loneliness. Vassilis Alexakis evokes these emotions in his admirably concise prose which lends itself as readily to discrete humour as to the most devastating revelations.
Papa was awarded the short story prize by the Académie Française in 1997.
“All that matters is the atmosphere, which is often absurd and always delightful, in this handful of short stories shot through with the author’s exuberant irony. Love, friendship, faithfulness and fantasy form the links that connect these various short stories. Vassilis Alexakis is having fun. And so are we.” Marianne Payot, L’Express.
Vassilis Alexakis is best known for his books Paris-Athènes, La langue maternelle (1995 Prix Médicis), Je t’oublierai tous les jours, Les mots étrangers, Ap. J.-C. (winner of the 2007 Novel Grand Prix from the Académie Française) and Le premier mot (2010).
Que faire lorsqu’un petit garçon inconnu vient vous demander de rentrer à la maison en vous appelant papa ? Est-il possible de continuer à être jaloux d’une femme aimée, et qui est morte ? Comment perdre son emploi à cause d’un coup franc marqué par Michel Platini ?
Les situations imaginées dans ces nouvelles peuvent paraître loufoques ou étranges, à la limite du rêve éveillé. Elles parlent pourtant des sentiments les plus banals et les plus fondamentaux de la vie : le désir, la peur de l’âge, l’aspiration à l’impossible, la solitude. Vassilis Alexakis les évoque dans une langue admirable de concision, qui se prête à l’humour discret comme aux plus bouleversants aveux.
L'auteur
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