On the Trail of the Noun, Jean-Jacques Maurel

They say everything is decided before the age of five. This is true for the narrator. After reading this book, you will wonder how long it has been since you dreamed of your childhood. Then you will question your parents, your relatives, and especially your memories. Each of us, at one point or another in our lives, is confronted with this now popular and wise reflection: "It is by knowing where you come from that you know where you are going." By delivering these eleven childhood stories, the narrator does more than just delve back into these memories; he simultaneously calls upon his childlike and adult eyes to recount the extraordinary adventures in which his father is the hero. Adventures that shaped his life as a man. But these are not just any adventures. These adventures are set in sub-Saharan Africa in the 1950s. It's about colonization, just before independence. These extraordinary adventures plunge you into an encounter with a unique man, a confrontation between the ideal of the Protestant missionary and the reality of humanitarian work. A free spirit who considered the indigenous people his equals and his mission solely for the benefit of the local populations. In short, a narrative that will shed a particular light on today's geopolitical context.