Used book – L'Entre-temps, René Guitton

Little Alex, born in an internment camp deep in Morocco, has become a man. A man older than his sailor father ever was, a man his father shaped and fascinated. His father taught him about boats, planes, contemplating the green flash of sunsets, openness to others, and loyalty. It is out of loyalty to his mother and father that Alex returns to his homeland: separated for too long, his parents must finally be reunited in France. And the child, now an adult, feeds on the memory of Rose, his mother, a young Italian milliner, wild and captivating, of his freedom-loving grandparents, of Yemna the Jew, of Mina the Muslim, of his aunt from America, of his cousins from Africa…

In this sensitive and powerful novel, written with modesty and elegance, the perverse alliances of World War II, which lead to Rose's captivity, become intertwined. Despite the tragedy of a collapsing world, the joy of being together triumphs over cruelty. Through a timid and delicate "you" with a sober and restrained voice, the son addresses the father, in a quest for origins aimed at finally grasping some fragments of the mystery of filiation.