Le Grand Écart

Jacques Forestier drifts through the smoky cafés and restless streets of 1920‑s Paris, a man whose quick wit masks a deeper, stubborn melancholy. He fashions riddles from names and faces, tossing them aside with the same careless grace that earns him a reputation for both brilliance and mendacity. Yet beneath his sardonic exterior lies a relentless yearning for beauty—whether in a fleeting glance, a perfect line of verse, or the curve of a body—that he can never quite claim for himself.

The novel follows Jacques as he navigates a world that both idolizes and shuns his paradoxical nature. His disdain for conventional politics and social hierarchies drives him toward a solitary, almost animalistic elegance, while his fragile confidence teeters on the brink of collapse. Listeners will be drawn into his internal battles, his fleeting moments of tenderness, and the poignant humor that keeps him perpetually out of step with the world around him.