The "Elle" readers' prize

The "Elle" readers' prize for 2019, which is celebrating its 50th anniversary this year, was awarded to Adeline Dieudonné and Jesmyn Ward, respectively published by L'Iconoclaste and Belfond.

Two women tied for the 50th Elle Women's Grand Prix. At the award ceremony, June 3 in Paris, Adeline Dieudonné and Jesmyn Ward were distinguished in the category "novel" respectively for "La vraie vie" (The Iconoclast) and  "Le chant des revenants" at Belfond .

Winner of the Fnac novel awards, First Pen, Filigranes and Renaudot of high school students 2018, Adeline Dieudonné portrayed in her first novel, "La vraie vie", the lugubrious and boring daily life of a young girl. Her father, passionate about hunting, exposes his stuffed animals and his elephant defense in one of the rooms of the house. Her mother is transparent, non-existent. So, with her brother Gilles, she plays in the car carcasses of the casse while waiting for the arrival of the ice truck. Until today when a serious accident disturbs the daily life of his family.

For her part, Jesmyn Ward captivated readers of the women's magazine with the song of the ghosts, the story of Jojo, 13 years old. The boy takes care of the farm and takes care of his little sister and grandmother. When his father gets out of prison, he rehases his questions about what a man is. Known as "William Faulkner Contemporary" by Lee Daniels, Jesmyn Ward has twice won the National Book Award for her novel "Bois sauvage" in 2011 and "Le chant des revenants" in 2017, translated into French by Charles Recoursé.

Tian'anmen

Tian'anmen
(04/06/1989 - 04/06/2019)

Thirty years ago, Tian'anmen protests ended in a bloodbath, commonly known as the Tian'anmen Square Massacre. The movement of students, intellectuals and Chinese workers demanded more democracy and denounced a society corrupted by corruption. To understand the steps that have led China to practice such a radical repression of protest movements and to lock the society, we advise you to read the novel of Paul Greveillac, "MAITRES ET ESCLAVES", finalist of the price Goncourt and laureate of the price Jean Giono 2018.

In this novel, conceived as an ambitious and richly documented historical fresco, Paul Greveillac interweaves small and great history through Kewein's fate. Born in 1950 in a peasant family at the foot of the Himalayas, Kewei escaped agricultural labor and permanent re-education by leaving to study at Beijing Fine Arts, leaving behind his mother, his young wife, their son and a village whose ancestral traditions are disappearing under the blows of the Revolution.

In the big city, Kewei rubs shoulders with the masters of the new China. He gets the Party card. Become a painter of the regime, he knows an ascent without limit. But history will soon catch up with him.

Have you read Paul Greveillac's novel?

"L’HIVER DU MECONTENTEMENT", THOMAS B. REVERDY

The book is a historical and moral novel. Her action is located in London in the winter of 1978-1979. When the winter of the United Kingdom strikes Poland, the "sick man of Europe" is experiencing mass strikes and the ubiquitous crisis.

There are two types of narratives in the novel: the third and first-person narratives. The first person speaks to twenty-year-old Candice, who runs a notebook with notes to prepare her to play the role of Richard III in Shakespeare's play of the same title.

Although Candice most often appears on the pages of the novel, I would not call her the main character. It's not Margaret Thatcher or musician, John Jones. The theme of the novel is the title Shakespeare's "winter of dissatisfaction." The author presents problems with which the British had to face in the winter of 1978-79: general strike, problems with commuting, poor supply of shops, constantly growing number of unemployed, and the ruling party trying to calm down the population, unable to admit defeat. "Crisis? What crisis? ", The prime minister replies to the journalists' question. This lapsus is used by the Thatcher party, which starts an aggressive campaign built on the dissatisfaction of the population. The conservative party uses the slogan "make Britain great again", a slogan that will soon be used by Reagan applying for the office of the President of the United States, and who is us - people living in 2018 - also well known.

It is also a story about youth, its insecurities and fears. The book makes us aware of the "generation of millennials" that young adults in Britain in the late 1970s had similar concerns about the future as we did. Candice from time to time remembers the sad saying of local youth: "no future".

The novel has been divided into many very short chapters (usually 5-6 pages). Each of them is like a snapshot of the gray everyday life of the country in a crisis. I think that their shortness also reflects the nervousness and uncertainty of those times. The chapters have been titled in an unusual way, because with the rock titles of English songs from this period, which very well reflect the spirit of the era. They are like a rock history lesson. It seems to me that you can read a book while listening to songs, because the length of the song should correspond to the reading length of the chapter (but I did not succeed because the music distracted me too much). For me, however, such short families were a big downside, because I was easily distracted by them, and each chapter concerned a slightly different thread.

The book is interesting, but not exceptional. The cover description actually reveals everything that will happen in the novel. I missed a thread that would catch me in the book, because (as I wrote above) it is primarily a collection of snapshots of Britain's everyday life in crisis and a brief debate on power (fragments of Richard the III and Margaret Thatcher).

"Quatre-vingt-dix secondes" Daniel Picouly

It is difficult to say unequivocally what type of novel is Quatre-vingt-dix secondes. Certainly, this is a historical novel, because the action takes place in 1902 in Martinique, which from 1635 is the French domain. To say that a given year happens is not enough, because all the described events take place on a single day. However, we know the context and the older history of the heroes thanks to the stories of the peculiar narrator, which is the Pelée volcano. He is (or rather she, because he is called not a volcano, but the mountain) a fully conscious and omniscient being that has personality and preferences. It is him who introduces us to the space of Saint-Pierre, not only about his geography, but also about the people who inhabit it. At the end of the first chapter, he also introduces an important detail that affects the entire subsequent reading: announces his eruption and the death of 30,000 inhabitants of Paris, the Caribbean (as it was called Saint-Pierre).

The main heroes of blood and bones can be called Othello and Louise, young lovers, whose love seems tragic because of the girl's destiny to one of the richest people on the island. We also meet other characters who are struggling with more or less everyday problems. The importance of their life struggles, however, escapes the reader due to the upcoming catastrophe. The problems of slavery and its repercussions are also woven into the narrative, and the great politics into the background. These issues are, however, poorly marked and as if taken out of context. If it were not for the reader to be buried in the back of the reader's head, it would be difficult to find the theme of the novel.

Nature, whose representative is the Pelée volcano is not consistent. The volcano, and the old Indian goddess Pele himself, expresses his destructive tastes and explains the bloodlust. It seems not to worry about the fate of the people whose suffering she has announced, and yet directly affects the fate of Othello, saving him from death. Personification of the volcano is not the only fantastic thread in the book, because some characters, as it turns out, also have some mystical knowledge.

Finally, let me mention that the events described (or at least the basic facts) actually took place.

Generally, the book is quite well written, but in my opinion it is incoherent. It seems to me that the author wanted to move too many vagaries in too small a space, which he limited himself.

Tobie Nathan, "L’évangile selon Youri"

    This is a book telling the story of a boy named Youri. We meet him through the eyes of a retired psychotherapist, to whom the child knows why he keeps coming back. After an unexplained incident that took place in the nursing home where Youri was staying, he is rejected by his colleagues. He is suspected of sorcery and so he goes to the psychotherapy center where Elie works. By reading we find out that the boy is a Romanian emigrant who came to France with his mother. There would be nothing unusual about it except for the fact that Youri knows everything and has supernormal abilities. 

    He changes the lives of everyone he meets. His dying mother wants Elie to take care of her son after her death. At the beginning, the skeptical idea of ​​the idea becomes attached to the boy who begins to heal the sick in a nearby clothing store, which Eli is a regular visitor to. Heals souls. Thanks to the boy, Elie is recognized as the savior of the President of the Republic, who has been kidnapped by terrorists because of the interference of a boy, whom no one ever notices, or at least does not connect with him the successful end of events. While reading, we attach to the boy as if we knew him personally.

    The reading encourages reflection on whether we can actually rationally explain everything, or we know the answers to all the questions. The author addresses many issues, ranging from emigration, terrorist activities and issues related to faith. Not only does he immerse us in history, he also shares his thoughts with us. 

From the very beginning, we want to know the whole story.

„L’ERE DES SUSPECTS” GILLES MARTIN – CHAUFFIER

The latest novel by G. Martin - Chauffier is, it seems, to be called a political novel about a cultural background, which at first glance could be mistakenly labeled a crime novel. For it is not the investigation of the guilty about the death of an Arab teenager that turns out to be a key topic. The unmasking of all connections in the structures of power comes to the fore.

In the depths of the structures, the narrators introduce the first-person to the reader. Narrators, because there are many of them - each chapter is a different narrator, and in total there are ten of them. Applying such a procedure, the author allows the reader to assess the situation from different points of view, from the mouths of people involved in various state structures. Among the narrators, we find three policemen (Giquel, Mehut, Duval), a stationist from the police station (Bouyx), director of the ministry's office (de Savay), two lawyers (Meyssan and Desdieux), editor-in-chief of a popular magazine (Vincourt), delegate of the Mercenary (Saidi), and finally the mother of the dead boy (Aslass).

It should now be explained to what all the above narrators refer to. Well, the subject of their actions and reflections is the situation that happens one day in today's Versières (time: year 2016, place: Versières, France). The day after the police patrol, in which a young apprentice is assisted by policeman Giquel, the body of an Arab teenager is found in the Versières district called Cité Noire. The relationship with police patrol is that the patrolling couple was photographed the day before by a teenager, as a result of Giquel's challenge. Does his intervention have anything to do with the boy's death? Where is the truth?

This outline seems to foretell an immersive criminal novel whose main topic will be the investigation. Nothing could be more wrong, because it's not about the investigation, it's not in its classic dimension anyway. Only at the end of the novel, as if by accident the reader learns who was at fault. And all this to obliterate the reader from illusions, stereotypes, representations. Demascation occurs in every chapter, the attitude to investigation, or rather the desire to avoid it, increases.

The novel draws in as soon as the reader dips his nose in the novel. Probably it is related to a simple language (much less poetic than in the case of "Maitres et esclaves") used by all narrators. Interestingly, the French language in the narrative of the Arabian hero is the same, or there are very small differences, like the language of the French narrators. So there are some common areas for both nations.

LEURS ENFANTS APRES EUX Nicolas Mathieu

    Nicolas Mathieu's second book is a moral novel, which takes place in a small town in the eastern part of France. The events take place over a period of 6 years - each chapter is a fragment of another year, in succession 1992, 1994, 1996, 1998. Each one of them also has the title of a song, "Smells Like Teen Spirit" or "I Will Survive".

    "Leurs enfants apres eux" is a story about a few teenagers (in 1992, the main character - Anthony - is 14 years old). They all come from poor families who are still struggling with financial problems; some are immigrant children. The characters enter into adolescence and all this turbulent process is described in detail. Teenagers are experimenting with drugs and alcohol. They experience the first love of elation, for some it is a time of sexual initiation. The book is about the collision of fantasies and dreams of young people with reality. The world presented by Matthieu is very brutal, vulgar. The language of the heroes is often primitive, rich in potocyzmy. However, the third person narrator draws events and space very accurately. He also describes the emotional states of the heroes, not limiting himself to Anthony's world. We observe changes in the lives of heroes, their transformation into adults.

    The first scene - when Anthony and her cousin steal a motor boat to meet the girls on the other side of the lake - shows what kind of events will be presented. We are witnessing many meetings of young people, parties and pub visits.

   In addition to the relationship between teenagers, the teenager-parent relationship is also extensively described. These young people often grew up in pathological environments, with alcohol addicted fathers, aggressive ones. Nevertheless, the author does not show them in a completely bad light, he also writes about good times (for example, when Anthony's mother wants to help him, save him from his father's wrath). It seems to me that the title of the novel refers to these relations. The characters, in a sense, follow their parents' footsteps, you can certainly talk about social determinism here. 

    This book, despite the fact that her language is very lively and full of humor, is not easy to read. The descriptions are dense, there are a lot of difficult words, but also potocisms that I did not know before (even drug-related nomenclature). The author uses the passe simple time, with which I have practically never encountered before. I must admit that - because of the time pressure and just the length of the book - I could not read it as accurately as I would like. Certainly I would like to return to this position for some time and devote enough time to it.

„DIX-SEPT ANS” ÉRIC FOTTORINO

    "Dix-sept ans" is an autobiographical novel. The author presents us the fate of his mother Lina, who at the age of 17 gives birth to her first son,  Éric Fottorino, that's the writer. However, it is not the story of Lina that is a key element here, but the path of the author to find in himself the love for his mother and his identity. It is for this purpose that the author goes to Nice, the city where his mother lived and where he was born, spending only three days there. Visiting the city, he tries to find his seventeen-year-old mother in it.

    It is worth adding a few words about the author himself. His biological father is a Moroccan Moshé who was a Jew. It was about him that Éric wrote "Questions à mon père" (2010). However, Moshé abandoned his son and Lina, in time associating with another woman. Over time, her mother meets the Tunisian, Michel Fottorino, who adopts Éric and gives him his last name. The second father is also devoted to the novel, which appears under the title "L'Homme qui m'aimait tout bas" (2009). "Dix-sept ans" is therefore a novel complementing the author's cycle, which revolves around the topic of searching for its identity.

    The narrator "Dix-sept ans" is the author himself. He leads his narratives in a very intimate way, honestly describing his feelings and thoughts, which allows the reader to thoroughly follow the process of discovering his love for his mother. An interesting element of the narrative are direct phrases to the mother, which emphasize the attempt to understand Lina's behavior towards her son.

    

    I positively appreciate showing the process of understanding and loving your mother who has been thoroughly presented. The reader can analyze the next stages of getting closer to his mother. The theme of the work is also very interesting. It seems that the love of a parent is something natural and undisputed. The author, however, shows us that sometimes it takes several decades to find this feeling. In my opinion, the downside of the novel is the monotony that sometimes appears, which distracts the subject from curiosity.

LA REVOLTE Clara Dupont-Monod

"La révolte" Clara Dupont-Monod

The novel tells the story (the author herself notes in the end that she did not plan a historical novel), presents details of the life of Queen Eleanor of Aquitaine known as a rebel in her time. The Queen of France, thanks to Louis VII, and later Queen of England alongside Henry II Plantagenet, mother of the famous Richard Lion Heart and Jan No Earth. We get to know her fate with the help of Ryszard himself, who is the main narrator of the novel (but not the only one). We get to know the queen's ambitions, the struggles she led to come and stay in power. Ryszard, who is quite warlike, even bloody, is torn between an absolute desire to satisfy his mother's will to oppose his father and a sense of belonging to the family.

In this tribute to his son's love for his mother, Ryszard says what led him to lead the army against his father. Clara Dupont-Monod, by Ryszard, also describes baron fights, lies, treason, religious or political games, but also the important role played by women and the war against Saladin in the East.

The novel is written in an interesting way, the narrator interweaves memories with the present tense, one can get the impression that along with it we follow the footsteps of the queen. There were, however, fragments that made something wrong in Ryszard: sometimes there were comparisons of medieval times to times closer to us. They were not explicitly marked, but when explaining some traditions, for example, the knight's author compared them to our customs, including referring to the meaning of a word.

Despite everything, I think that the novel is good, worth attention and reading

"Frère d'âme" David Diop

DAVID DIOP, "FRERE D'AME"
Frère d'âme is a war-themed novel. You can also find psychological elements in it, thanks to which the story seems more complete, the hero's attitude easier to understand, and thus the whole is interesting.
The book tells the story of a young Senegalese - Alfie Ndiaye. The man fought on the French side during the First World War, which he did not want to go. He enlisted for a friend who after the war wanted to be someone big and important. Fate, however, wanted differently and already in the first chapter we see that Mademba dies in agony and, although he asks Alfa for relief in suffering, he can not get to kill a friend, what he utters himself to the end of the book. The Senegalese is initially considered a hero, a brave soldier, but he himself can not forgive himself for failing to do his "plus que frère" at such a moment. With time, he becomes brutal, and people start looking at him like a madman. Quite a large role is played by seven severed hands of killed enemies, which Alpha carries with him. When, after the war, he goes to Dr. François, in the form of pictures, because he does not speak French, he tells his story. From now on, we discover the life of an Alpha from before the war. We see him leave his mother, who went to look for her family, how he was adopted by the Mademba family, and his father regretted it. Together with the protagonist, we experience the first love elation.
The past of the man and the post-war period are intertwined, but they still form a coherent whole.
One by one, we get to know different faces of the Alpha. A desperate friend who can not alleviate the suffering of Madembie, a brave, though brutal soldier of the French army, an abandoned child who wants to find a mother, a faithful friend and a tender lover.
The first-person narrative allows you to better understand the history and to understand the feelings that torment the Alpha, as well as its behavior. The language of the novel is simple, just like the hero who is not educated. Form reminiscent of the main character's confession, as if the man wanted to absolve himself from his deeds.
I think that 'Frère d'âme' is a novel worth reading. It touches topics that we do not think about everyday. Moral problems faced by a soldier, his perception of the world, as well as the influence of the past on the present. All this can be found in this novel.

"La Vraie vie"

ADELINE DIEUDONNÉ "LA VRAIE VIE"

Honestly, the term of the genre that characterizes this novel is not easy for me. On the one hand, the book is embedded in the realities of reality and seems to be moral, but at the same time you can not ignore the whole of its climate, which surrounds magic and some extraordinary character, which gives it the characteristics of a fantastic novel. Nevertheless, I would not call it a fantastic novel, because the "magic" that I am talking about is not intrusive and dominant - we do not have dragons, flying fairies, elves and a completely different reality. What's more, because we are dealing with a first-person narrative, and our narrator is a little girl endowed with unusual imagination, it is difficult to estimate how presented the world corresponds to real events around her, and how much is the product of her lush fantasy. When I was wondering how to call such a kind of novel, I remembered that I had read about magical reality once. Refreshing myself what magical realism stands out, I am willing to risk and say that perhaps this word reflects the genre with which we are dealing. It also speaks for the fact that Dieudonné is a Belgian, and Belgian literature is a large fantasy heritage, dividing into various interesting subgenres.

I am certainly inclined to call La vraie vie an initiation novel. The heroine undergoes a huge change. The reader begins the novel from the relationship of a small, carefree girl, and ends up reading with a picture of a young, but still much more mature girl. It is worth noting that our narrator is mature from the first pages, but it gets stronger with each side.

"Quand Dieu boxait en amateur" GUY BOLEY

"Quand Dieu boxait en amateur" GUY BOLEY

The book at the very beginning made me quite negative about it: I personally do not like the first-person narrative, which we find from the first sentences. To my surprise, we quickly forget about it, because the work focuses on the narrator's memories. He tells the story of his father, his way through life. We start from the end of my father's life: from his death, illness. Later, however, the story goes on chronologically: from the youngest years, through interest in the title box, to the end of the main character's days.

An interesting theme are reflections on the role of the Church: the best friend René (the father of the narrator) becomes a priest and as a theater enthusiast tries to enrich the parish with a noteworthy theater art. However, there is a clash with the conservative pastor, who for years has been presenting the same during the parish festival and considers it the only thing clean and worthy of a beautiful church.

Anyway, the father becomes a boxer, which causes his closest fears: despite his achievements in amateur battles, i.e. the French championship, he feels that he is becoming too old for an amateur play, and he is not fit for work in this profession. The chance to dispel doubts and find a good way is given to him by his friend, who offers him the role of Jesus in the Passion, which he intends to exhibit in the parish. There are new ambitions of the main character.

The song is written in an interesting language, exceptionally rich (especially thanks to René's love of writing unknown words from Larousse), containing a dose of quite specific sense of humor, but he has, however, amused the "L'église Saint-Martin des Chaprais est assez laide" several times: il est préférable d'avoir la foi avant d'y entrer. " I am not sure if this is a book worth distinction, but everything will turn out to be read in comparison with other works. Regarding the reasons for doubts, I think that an important aspect when choosing a book worth winning in our competition is always the value for the Polish reader (as the books are translated into Polish) and the subject matter. This novel may actually be a tribute to the father of the narrator (and perhaps even the author, since it is probably autobiographical), but I do not see any exceptional values ​​that she could convey to the Polish audience.

« HÔTEL WALDHEIM » FRANÇOIS VALLEJO

«Hôtel Waldheim» is a moral novel with political elements, written in the first-person narrative and embedded in the realities of today, as well as in the 70's of the twentieth century. The action is mainly in France and Switzerland.
One day, Jeff Valdera receives an anonymous postcard about enigmatic content, from Switzerland, where the hotel is located, in which he once stayed as a teenager with his aunt during the holiday season. He soon receives new postcards that allow him to locate and contact their sender. Intrigued by a person who seems to know a lot about him, he decides to make an appointment with her. It turns out that she is a woman, Frieda Steigl, daughter of Friedrich Steigl, a professor of German-speaking history who stayed at the Waldheim Hotel during the same period as Jeff. Frieda wants him to tell her about his father, but the man does not suspect that his memories are really an excuse to solve the mystery of disappearance, in which the unconscious 16-year-old was entangled. "Une ouverture d'esprit", to which Frieda urges him, reveals a bit of the political scene of the game, led by the hotel guests and the truth about the past. «S'il n'y a pas encore pire que l'ignorance. La connaissance peut-être? »

The main motive of this novel is memory. Memory in the context of memories of the past, memory of people, still alive and provocative search, inquiring truths; historical memory, which is an important background, refers to the period of the Cold War, the division of Germany into West Germany and the GDR; about the fugitives from this period who found help and shelter at the Waldheim Hotel and about Stasi agents whose task was to uncover them.
The inconspicuous Hotel Waldheim became the center of political games in which the owner was entangled, Johann Meili, his brother Dr. Christian Meili, Frau Finkel, a regular and passionate literature lover, Friedrich Steigl, father Frieda, Linka's marriage, and our main character.

Jeff is oblivious to the role he plays in the hotel. He becomes an intermediary, informer and even suspected of cooperation in hiding fugitives. He is a witness to conversations and events that in retrospect (and under the influence of Friedy) take on a whole new dimension. Suddenly, the innocent and seemingly insignificant memories of a teenager become a source of valuable information for Friedy, for whom the real world is history and events from the past.
Frieda is a very interesting figure indeed. Extremely intelligent and well-read, penetrating and uncompromising in her search, even obsessively seeking the truth about her father's fate - based on archives and documents, convinced of her reason and her imagination of what happened. Jeff's memoirs are juxtaposed with the confessed statements of the Stasi agents, the memory is reconstructed anew. «Memoire parallele, comme si une moitié de mon cerveau était remplacée par cette machine à souvenir totalitaire». We get to know the story through the eyes of Jeff, but already aware of those nuances that have escaped him before. This may cause some scoff when reading, how likely is it to remember with such precision the details from several decades ago? Is it possible to talk about the preparation of memories, about imagining something that could have been because someone told us that? Falsification of memories and facts is a topic that keeps coming back and is being analyzed on various occasions.

You can not fail to mention the theme of the game: about the political game, the game of appearances, metaphorical and literal game (in chess and it, practiced by hotel guests). The heroes analyze the movements of their opponents, adjust the strategy; Jeff becomes a pawn, whose double game is a mystery to everyone.

The Vallejo workshop is solid, both in terms of language and creation of the characters. Although the reading was quite pleasant, I do not consider it a worthy favorite. I did not find anything revealing in it, nothing that would be innovative and what would make me more emotional.

"LE MALHEUR DU BAS" Inès Bayard

Useful informations:
- a novel (in my opinion) of morality, set in contemporary times
- Narrative 3-seater, strongly focused on the main character and rarely going out, her world '
- The action of the novel is happening mainly in Paris

Outline of content:
The novel begins, from the end: on the first three pages, we learn that the mother poisoned her husband and son at dinner.

Time goes back and we meet a young woman- Marie, who seemingly has everything: a great job in a bank, a lawyer's husband, beautiful apartment, friends, etc. The idyll ends when one day after work, the boss proposes to drive her home. The man descends from the route, parks in the garage and violently violates the subordinate (I recommend reading the most sensitive readers on an empty stomach). Marie, shocked, does not tell anyone about the whole incident, the closest ones do not see any changes in her behavior, and if they see, they put it to work fatigue. Marie tries to recover and forget about the tragedy, but she does not know for long that she is pregnant. Intuitively, she feels that this is the child of the boss, and here begins the broadly understood "hatred": to herself, to her husband, to the child, to the world and everything that surrounds her. Without psychological help after the trauma that touched her, Marie falls into deeper and deeper depression: she neglects her duties, does not look after her son properly, does not go to work and is most likely not getting out of bed. To all this, my husband begins to cheat on her, and she feels more and more chaos in her life. In the end, an idea appears in her head, which the reader already knows from the first pages of the novel. The ending brings with it a certain spike twist (SPOILER ALERT): Marie's husband has asked a friend to test the child's DNA. When he falls dead, poisoned by his wife, he gets an SMS saying that this is his child.

My opinion:
The novel touches on an extremely important and painful problem that many women have already touched. The reader is a witness of what the lack of help and support for those closest to in such traumatic events leads to. The author shows very well the progressive depression and what the main character feels. Nevertheless, at certain moments the book is long and it is not that interesting. However, due to the fact that it raises an important topic and ends up in me really remarkable, I can say that I even liked it