They are the sort of people who leave few traces. Virtually anonymous. Inseparable from those Paris streets, those suburban landscapes …. That may be the reason why so few of his books have been translated into English. The city of Paris is often present in the text and can almost be considered a creative participant in the works.
Rather often his tales are built on an autobiographical foundation, or on events that took place during the German occupation. He sometimes draws material for his works from interviews, newspaper articles or his own notes accumulated over the years.
His novels show an affinity with one another, and it happens that earlier episodes are extended or that persons recur in different tales. A work of documentary character, with World War II as background, is Dora Bruder which builds on the true tale of a fifteen-year old girl in Paris who became one of the victims of the Holocaust. Eight years ago, in an old copy of Paris Soir dated December 31 , a headline on page three caught my eye:.
I had long been familar with the area around the Boulevard Ornano. As a child, I would accompany my mother to the Saint-Ouen flea markets. We would get off the bus either at the Porte de Clignancourt or, occasionally, outside the 18th arrondissement Town Hall. Always, it was a Saturday or Sunday afternoon. The narrator remembers this northern boulevard from his childhood when he used to go the Saint-Ouen flea market with his mother. He remembers the neighbourhood as it was in , when he had a girlfriend who lived there.
He recalls that the nearest Metro stop is Simplon, and that there used to be a cinema at 43 Boulevard Ornano.
