Each part of this luminous triptych subtly evokes the life of one of three men whose weaknesses, suffering and contradictions are suggested rather than spelled out. Pascal Quignard, who knows the author well, describes this work as a triptych of loss.  The characters have all been portrayed at a critical points in their lives, when they are taking stock of the ties that bind them to the world: marriage, family, guilt… until they flees, blasting away everything that is familiar and restraining.
Behind the Mountain: Antoine, his father, mother and brothers have gotten together for a few days at the family’s chalet in the mountains, along with a few friends, who wind up slipping away – leaving the family alone with Gina, who will become Antoine’s father’s mistress, and Jean, whose presence there is shrouded in shadows and mystery. The holiday will spell death for one of them, then one last winter, a time for a final disappearance behind the mountain, will return…
Splinters of Flight: A narrative in the second person guided by the narrator, who traces the life of a former military man who is head-strong and cruel. One day in June, he goes to spend a few days in a tiny village perched high on a mountain slope with his wife. There he runs into a young woman who was once a student and the bad man, recently released from the psychiatric ward. The characters’ fates intertwine and the novel’s dramatic ending comes in a long stunning scene.
On Summer’s Surface. A first-person narrative from the point of view of a former special-needs teacher whose wife suddenly disappears, abandoning her husband and child for a mysterious reason. The narrator goes on the move, changing friends, jobs and homes, trying to evacuate the slightest speck of events, straining to erase his own existence.

Three novels in one: Behind the Mountain, Splinters of Flight and On Summer’s Surface. Three strikingly humanistic tales combining the captivating presence of nature and the imprecision of lives observed on a fragile crest of their path.