A brilliantly well-woven novel about a family recovering from a cruel tragedy, ending with the resolution of an almost thirty-year-old mystery.

When singer Joséphine Coll was hired for a series of concerts on the Milan Royal, a Mediterranean cruise ship, she took along her parents and brother. They couldn’t bear not to spend 8 July together, the anniversary of the death of Baptiste, the family’s eldest son, who fell during a climbing session twenty-six years earlier in 1998. On holiday on the same boat, they met an adulterous couple: after years of begging Cédric to leave his wife, Laure gives him an ultimatum. But on the morning of the fourth day, she suddenly throws herself into the sea. When the police inspector sent on board fails to find answers to Joséphine questions, the young woman, shocked by Laure’s death, turns to the past and her own memories… What if these two tragedies were connected?

Vincent Maillard’s perfectly-crafted novel, written in a delightful style, takes a sharp stab at the excesses of consumer society, the flippancy of the privileged, and the opportunism and sense of impunity of politicians. He also pays tribute to the courage of a family in mourning and to the journey of Joséphine, vulnerable despite her bravado, in search of a serenity she cannot find