“Terraces” is its title. Like those who were targeted on the evening of November 13, 2015. Like “devastated”, too. A word that “well sums up the shift that took place that night,” he slips. Laurent Gaudé publishes with Actes Sud a personal and polyphonic, moving account of this evening which marked a before and after for all Parisians.
In this short, rhythmic, almost cinematographic book, we move from one character to another, like a camera moving around the capital, following the attacks which left 130 dead and 350 injured. The 51-year-old author places his gaze full of humanity, sometimes furtively, sometimes lingering, on the victims and anonymous witnesses of this evening: a young mother who argues with her partner before going out, twin accomplices who meet to celebrate their anniversary, a couple of lovers, but also a nurse, a rescuer, a young female firefighter and a pedestrian who sees the attackers' car pass.
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