► Farewell to the father
So it’s goodby Clémentine Mélois
Bernard Mélois, sculptor and father, is going to die. His family will do everything to make it an unforgettable moment, with an air of celebration for this full and joyful life: “We’re going to bury you like a pharaoh, with objects. What could we wear? » Until the end, Clémentine Mélois collects these little ordinary and knowing dialogues. Even in the creative work. Weren’t the girls recruited to look for all kinds of enameled debris essential for Bernard Mélois’ work? “My father was an alchemist,” confides Clémentine Mélois, who received the 2024 Méduse prize for this twirling tribute to the father.
The crossbow/Gallimard, 208 p., €19.50
► Find out everything about your life
Archipelagosby Hélène Gaudy
He collects everything, especially what can’t be used for anything… His workshop speaks for him. “Everything had been there, within four walls, for years. Everything he never said, everything he himself has forgotten. »Hélène Gaudy will therefore reconstruct her father’s history, going back to the war which left its traces, the grandfather who sealed her son’s destiny: “As a child, my father lived in a place that does not exist. Perhaps this is why it was impossible for her to leave him completely. » The author brings together some writings, photos, still tries to make this secret father speak who nevertheless has nothing to hide. “Over time, I feel like I know more about his own life than my father did. » All will not be lost.
L’Olivier, 288 p., 21 €
► Being her father’s daughter
The Silence of the Ogresby Sandrine Roudeix
“Your first name like a slap, like an abyss, like a collapse. You’re no longer a ghost and I have to come to terms with that. » There are saving distances and painful reunions. The narrator never stopped looking, her father remained elusive for so long… The problem is that those who are absent sometimes take up a lot of space. Growing up without a father, then being confronted at 19 with this very real ghost, erasing it at 28 to survive, and finally knowing that it is there, still present. Like the pebble that ricochets against the surface of the water, the father emerges, imposes himself, fades away… Psychoanalysis, like writing, puts words to a woman’s overwhelming destiny.
Calmann-Lévy, 288 p., 20,50 €
► Family secrets
One day there will be no more fathersby David Frèche
“What I can tell you is that afterward, all of Al-Bliar was in shock. Your grandfather was a very popular person. » The case dates back to 1957, in a street in Algiers: the assassination of Georges Fier remains a mystery. Which side could he be on? Was he killed by mistake? This past haunts the relationship between Adam and his father. The latter was successful in business, but he told his son nothing about the family origins. The latter, in his forties, needs to know. Breaking the silence, reconnecting father and son, and shedding light as much as possible… Against the backdrop of the Algerian war, David Frèche shows that even secrets are passed down from generation to generation.
Éditions du Rocher, 320 p., €19.90
► Visiting rights
A father on the benchby Damien Lecamp
He makes us smile and yet: it is his own story that Damien Lecamp tells, the story of a distraught father. Because he can no longer see his 3-year-old son who lives in Switzerland with his mother, after the couple separated. Author for several comedians, the author does not dare to take himself seriously, tells his story casually. It is said that justice will pass, that visits are a paternal right… but the time of the courts is not that of a lonely father: “The weeks pass and, every evening, I try to bring Gabriel to life in my dreams. His face is gradually fading from my memory. Soon I will no longer dream of him. »
Éditions Léo Scheer, 192 p., €20