Le signe sur les mains : roman

In the hushed grandeur of a Parisian chapel on Holy Saturday, a young man named Jérôme slips among the faithful to witness the solemn ordination of clerics. The candle‑lit aisles, the violet‑cloaked bishop, and the rows of kneeling candidates create a tableau that feels both reverent and unsettling, as the ritual transforms the participants into living statues of devotion. Jérôme’s keen eyes linger on the procession, interpreting the red‑streaked altar cloth as the lingering blood of battles past.

Haunted by the memory of his older brother Montcalm, a soldier who fell just before the war’s end, Jérôme carries a promise forged in the mud of a battlefield. Their last exchange—a pledge that one would follow the other into whatever fate awaited—still reverberates in his thoughts as he contemplates a future that might lead him far from the sanctuary’s walls. The novel captures his inner conflict between the call of faith and the lingering echo of a brother’s sacrifice, setting the stage for a journey that will test both his convictions and his sense of self.