I am 46 years old. I did not vote in 1981, I was 13. As a spectator, I followed the results of the election of François Mitterrand, I remember seeing his face appear on the screen of my grandparents in tears. I went with them the next morning to buy sugar and reserves in case of shortage facing the arrival of 'red'. This novel plunges me in that time, then the afterlife, which saw me and made it grow. What a treat to relive those years through characters as rich, not stereotypical, yet so representative of the past 3 decades. A real treat that I devoured in a few days. I will offer to all those I love Christmas, young or old, because it is an important sign of our times so difficult to understand. Why this novel has not had the Goncourt?