In a world of evident emotional matriarchy, the relationship in both directions of parents and children has that point of alienating contention, of silence due to incapacity and isolation as a defense system. Even with that, the latency of all those emotions as strangely rooted offers unsuspected flashes of drama, joy, transcendence and humanity, like the Big Fish of Tim Burton, like any relationship of a father with his son with his trips back and forth from his arms to the world and back into his arms.
The man who tells this story lost his wife and has raised his two children to the best of his ability. They are two good and educated kids who love their father as much as he loves them, although they do not express it often. They share a love of soccer, memories of their mother, and humble working-class pride. Until suddenly the older man speaks less and less, he moves away from his father and begins to rub shoulders with young people from the extreme right.
With the fragile and deeply human sensitivity of one who does not have the tools to express how he feels, we witness the story of an imperfect love between a son and a father who does not know how to prevent his boy from being filled with hatred. Why can someone with a new life hold such fury? Can the love of a father forgive everything?
This unforgettable story asks the right questions, the ones that hurt the most, and the ones that escape an easy answer. Selected as the best book of the year by French students, it resonates with force in a world stunned by the rise of hatred and misunderstanding.
You can now buy the novel «What is missing at night», by Laurent Petitmangin, here:
