MONSIEUR EST MORT

Does the death of one's father signify that it is time for the end of the secrets and the unsaid, time for forgiveness? Or is it the time for resurgent guilt?

On the way of becoming French Bookseller's favorite book “The narrator of this unusual novel is Vincent, the second of four sons of the Rambaldi family. Fifteen years ago, he conquered his addiction to heroin by himself, thanks to an energetic plunge into Pascal's Pensées, and left for India, where he became a foreman in Mr Kumar's workshop, in Calcutta. There, he tried to find a simple kind of happiness. But once again, destiny comes knocking at his door, in a phone call from his mother: “Your father is dead.” Vincent considers mourning a mere “formality”, since, in his mind, he burned his bridges long ago. And he could ignore the whole thing, but instead he drops everything and returns to Paris for the funeral. And yet, once he arrives at the foot of the building where he grew up –Louis Rambaldi, heir of a family of Italian industrialists, once owned the entire building, which he turned into a fabulous museum to his own ego—Vincent is incapable of going up to the apartment. He is suddenly flooded with too many painful memories, all of which come back to him during his distraught and solitary flight from the scene. Louis Rambaldi, a monster who insisted that everyone call him “Monsieur”, had reduced his wife to a slave and did his sons no service in their upbringing, giving each of them a monthly allowance of 40,000FR on condition that, following his example, they should never work! This sinister education completely demolished them. Gabriel, the eldest, commit suicide after his father had forced him into perverse sexual acts. Julien, the youngest, who married young to escape his family, has failed at everything and become a violent junkie. And last, Tristan, who is miserable, tries to create an identity by cross-dressing. Vincent, of course, took off in order to save himself. So, what if he were to just turn around and go back to India, without seeing anyone? Finally, he decides to go upstairs, to go “home”, for a reunion dinner that turns into a free-for-all. And now he must confront still another ordeal: how will he react when he must face his father's corpse ? Karine Silla is a playwright, screenwriter, and director, and one can sense all three in this restrained first novel, in monologues, in flashbacks, an original and well-plotted work. A true story that has become fiction—one that Mauriac would have adored.”