In this investigative novel, Hélène Gaudy explores the lives of her father, as well as everyone’s intimate relationship with memories.
It took her mind drifting to Jean-Charles Island for her to come face to face with her father. Who is this man with a quiet presence, never questioned? The first place to explore is his studio. Throughout his life, the artist has collected and piled up all sorts of objects amidst his canvases, each one bearing the imprint of landscapes he has loved and inhabited. There are also the notebooks he entrusts to her, revealing the childlike man who knows nothing of his past, the idealistic and sentimental young adult, the teacher in Algeria, the husband with unwavering whimsy, or even the poet. Gradually, their writings intertwine.
Through this paternal geography, she becomes the archivist of memory. She unravels the thread of a destiny: the joys, the doubts, the wars, the passing history altering the course of things. By daring to take inventory, she offers her father an unsinkable place in memory. And to readers, a sensitive text of great beauty.
