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  • Today, "It's not far from paradise" by Laurent Peyrard, published on March 3, 2022 by Éditions L'Echelle du Temps.

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20 Minutes

Books, recommends

This is not far from paradise

by Laurent Peyrard, published on March 3, 2022 by Éditions L'Echelle du Temps.


His favorite quote:

“We are now inextricably linked.

Our feelings are tangled like powerful vines.

It now seems impossible to untie them, like the link that connects the tombs of Tristan and Iseult, beyond death.

»


Why this book?

  • Because despite the undeniable dark side,

    we are witnessing a journey towards the light told by the hero in the first person, to which we cannot be insensitive.

  • Because the twists and turns of adolescence,

    its questions, its doubts, its flashes, its mistakes, its wanderings are described from the inside and ring strangely true.

  • Because it is a real tragedy in three acts

    (corresponding to the quarters of a school year) which goes inevitably towards its programmed end, but which one hopes on each page that the oracles will be wrong.

  • Because it's a touching love story

    that contrasts with a sometimes sordid, sometimes violent setting, and that we believe to the end that love saves everything.


The essentials in 2 minutes

The plot.

Éric, in his final year of college, falls in love with a new student, Anne.

It's mutual love at first sight.

A love story begins, which changes everything in Eric's life and lifts him towards the light.

But all around them, jealousy and violence are unleashed.

Characters.

Eric, the hero, a lost schoolboy;

Anne, with whom he falls madly in love;

Eric's friends, not very recommendable;

his parents ;

Karim, Anne's ex-boyfriend;

Petrocian, an asocial and heroin-addicted new student.

Places.

Saint-Etienne, during the economic crisis of the 1980s.

The time.

1981, from the start of the school year to the end of the school year.

The author.

Laurent Peyrard is a native of Saint-Étienne.

He was 14 in 1981, like his hero, Eric.

He is now a journalist at France Télévisions in Paris.

This book was read with

empathy, and a real suffering for this doubly overwhelming end.

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  • Book sheet 20 Minutes

  • Books

  • Novel

  • High school

  • Love