Monk of the Cities: From Wall Street to Marseille's Northern Districts, Henry Quinson

A young Franco-American investment banker leaves his golden boy life to join an austere Cistercian monastery in Savoy. Why? He himself wonders. In the shadow of the enclosure walls, connected to other mystical explorers like the monks of Tibhirine in Algeria, his spiritual quest deepens. An unusual calling emerges: to found a small fraternity in the Northern Districts of Marseille. This rhythmic account, filled with humor and sensitivity, immerses the reader in astonishing microcosms. Going against stereotypical images, everyday life events bear witness to a discreet but real dynamic of metamorphosis. In the humility of a patient neighborhood, encounters between rich and poor, Christians and Muslims, believers and non-believers, French and foreigners, children and adults, transform perceptions of the world and of God. Far from the clichés of the clash of civilizations and the crisis of the suburbs, this concrete experience of human fraternity gives birth to a more enlightened, fairer, and joyful society. It testifies to the fruitfulness of the new monasticism that has been emerging since the 1990s.