Food critic Marie Aline has concocted an eerie thriller of (light) anticipation. — Jean-Claude Perrier, Livres Hebdo

Marie Aline explores desire, obligation, humanity, and our animal nature.

A chilling dystopia set over a backdrop of a leftist totalitarian regime that advocates self-regulation in all things, starting with food. A style that keeps a touch of humor even though it’s serious.

Toma used to dream of becoming a private eye. He wound up being a food critic.

In a Paris that marches to the beat of an autocratic state apparatus that has pushed the cult of health and well-being to the highest possible point, he is trying to find a way to exist.  His role: dictate to his fellow citizens what they’re supposed to eat. And although he does allow himself the odd lapse, this killjoy zealously follows the wishes of the newspaper he works for, oppressed by a scornful boss.

But one evening, as he’s out for his ritual stroll, a gleam of light catches his eye. Behind the closed metal curtain of a local snack shop, a meeting is taking place. A shamefaced group, drinking in the words of one man. Their secret: a fierce addiction to food.

Like a Kessel of his time, Toma will clandestinely join the secret group, which offers him material for the investigation of a lifetime. In addition to having found an inexhaustible source of inspiration, in observing these converts, he will discover his own true nature.

Intertwining anthropology and a coming-of-age tale, this thought-provoking and facetious first book explores our untamed side and displays incredibly sharp insight when it comes to blowing up constraints and taboos.