Night of amber

More about the book

The first death of the post-war era is that of a child, Petit-Tambour, killed in a hunting accident in the forest. This childhood, which has lost its body, becomes a dark gift of pain and hope to the living, the dead to come, and the trees. A great yew begins to take root on his grave; the whirlwind of berries sown by its branches will carry away Pauline, the mother, while the father, Baptiste, gradually fades away, lost in the endless tears shed by a body that cannot live without her. The second son, Charles-Victor, known as Night of Amber, feels abandoned and is consumed by anger and hatred. The novel tells the story of his journey to the depths of evil until he is finally overcome by the Angel, much like Jacob in the Bible. Following The Book of Nights, Sylvie Germain presents a rich tapestry of strange episodes, where each page seems infused with an apocalyptic breath, and where, as Schelling states, "truth becomes fable and fable becomes truth."