Three Days with My Mother - Goncourt Prize 2005, François Weyergans

"In the train, he pressed his head against the window and saw, superimposed, floating in a landscape of brushwood, a pale, tense face, his own, with its recognizable high and receding forehead, its swollen eyelids and its thin-lipped mouth. He felt like saying to himself: "What can I do for you?" This face so close to his own inspired a deep sympathy in him."
Night after night, a deeply troubled man protects himself by evoking his past – so many journeys, so many romantic encounters that remain haunting. His memory makes him dizzy. Will his memories help him feel better? He invents a series of doubles who lead a love life as turbulent as his own. He would like to visit his mother. She lives alone in Provence and will soon be ninety years old. First, he has a job to finish. His mother tells him: "Instead of sending faxes to your dozen lovers, you should publish a book, otherwise people will think you're dead."
Better than anyone, François Weyergans blends depth and humor, emotion and laughter, in this novel which forcefully asserts the powers of literature.