Used book – Valet de nuit, Michel Host

pocket. paperback. Philippe Archer embarks on a quest—and ultimately an investigation—that leads him to trace a distant, unknown, or worse, unacknowledged mother, and Charles Evariste, his father, whom his childish imagination made a hero, who disappeared during the turmoil of war. Paula Rotzen, like Ariadne, will guide Philippe, taking him for a brief stay in the city of C. where he will find the silence of winter beaches and the courage to make the two decisions that will henceforth shape his life. Paris, the city, and its river, the Seine, orchestrate this great novel, which won the Prix Goncourt in 1986. For there is family, but told in such a different way, in such sumptuous language, that one cannot truly assimilate this book to our dear old sagas (...) Michel Host is a great writer. A truly fascinating originality. What lyricism, what beauty when he describes the majestic power of a city like Paris. You must read him.