the favorites of Figaro Magazine

False culprits

No problem, by Luc Blanvillain, Quidam publisher, 356 p., €22.

At 30, Chloé leads an ordinary life. An unexciting job, no serious love story, a few relationships including Maxime, a faithful childhood friend and confidant. Their parents met in Normandy before going to Paris where these young retirees are enjoying happy times. In order to break away from everyday life, Chloe consults a therapist who convinces her that she suffered a trauma in her young years and that her parents are hiding this secret from her. But what to do when you have suffered nothing, that you are not a victim, that you do not belong to a community that can demand accountability, that you cannot impute your failures to anyone ? Far from this psychodrama of a spoiled child, in Normandy, Patricia, a fifty-year-old home helper dented by existence, bonds with an old lady and a strange man placed under guardianship. The destinies of these characters will collide around the imaginary trauma…