Nancy-Saïgon

Description

Somewhere in Lorraine one day in 2020, Simone is cremated to make room in the family vault. The traditional Indochinese dress she wore in her coffin is then rediscovered. A blue tunic about which only one thing is known: Simone's husband, Paul, sent it to her at the beginning of the Indochina War, before disappearing.

The narrator inherits this garment along with a box marked "Nancy-Saigon" containing Paul and Simone's correspondence. Secluded in his studio, he reads through these letters. As the pages turn, a man emerges - a certain Tilleul. A man whose role proves complex, even murky. And who seems to be the link between desires and crimes.

In this dazzlingly styled novel, the confrontation between two people, lost together at the end of the world, evolves with the languor and ferocity of war. Through the colonial past of Indochina, this is the story of a family that finds itself turned upside down.