L'ENTRE-TEMPS

A brilliant and captivating novel written with passion, wisdom and care.

Addressing his father with a shy yet loving -you, a son explores his origins to understand, at last, what being in the world truly means. Alexandre Landais, the little boy born in prison in a remote corner of Morocco in 1943, is a grown man now. He is older than his father - also named Alexandre - ever was. The father he had adored, the naval officer who had taught him about airplane mechanics and green flashes at sunset. The man who had taught him the importance of treating others with kindness and respect. Who had instilled in him a sense of loyalty. And it is out of loyalty to his parents that Alexandre has come to France, his father's native land. His parents, separated for so long, are to be reunited at last. However, exhuming his father means digging up the past : the scents and images but also the faces of a bygone era. There is his mother, Rose, a young Italian milliner, shy but impassioned; and his maternal grandparents, Vincenza and Girolamo, truly enamored of freedom. But there is also Yemna, the Jew, and Mina, the Muslim; the aunt from America and the cousins from Africa. With modesty and feeling, the author gives us a finely-wrought family history within the larger context of History : that of World War II, and the unholy alliance between countries at war that would send Rose to prison; that of the landing in North Africa and the bombings in Morocco; and that of Moroccan independence. Yet throughout it all, with the world crumbling tragically around them, a sense of joy prevails. Cruelty is outweighed by the pleasure of being together. Publisher, author and an ardent defender of human dignity, René Guitton is a tireless purveyor of trends of thought, his work over the years having sought, in particular, to establish a philosophical, cultural, and religious dialogue between the East and West. He won numerous prestigious literary awards with Ces chrétiens qu'on assassine (Flammarion, 2009) and Si nous nous taisons : le martyre des moines de Tibhirine (Calmann-Lévy, 2001). He is also the author of En quête de vérité (Calmann-Lévy, 2011).