When the City Falls

Original title: Quand la ville tombe

Author: Castino, Didier

Publication Date:

April 2021

Pages:

256

Original language and publisher

French |

Genre

Literary Fiction

When the City Falls

Original title: Quand la ville tombe

Author: Castino, Didier

Synopsis

To our wars, to our loves
Hervé met Blanche in the university carpark. They were twenty years old, fell in love, debated, protested, and stole books. They moved to Marseille, made close friends and brought up three children, while tirelessly fighting against the ills of the world. Until one day, the world bursts into flames. War is declared, outright and imminent.
Hervé waits for Blanche to march through the streets. But Blanche never comes. A balcony has collapsed. And she was walking underneath. So, Hervé enters another war. A war that confronts him with the loss of his beloved. Of the traces she has left behind. Of her radiance, too.

In this third novel, Didier Castino asserts his original narrative style and inimitable pace. He continues to explore man’s big commitments and small sacrifices. With infinite finesse, and a certain amount of derision with regards to serious topics, he portrays a luminous vision of the couple, in which the characters draw on their imagination and intelligence to move forward together. Loss and grief thus act to reveal life itself.