Ribouldingue and Pataquès are at a museum.They discuss a range of different subjects: the paintings around them, French history, their own past adventures. One of them used to be a Pied Nickelé, a sort of Burglar Bill comic-book character. He has only recently achieved 3-D. The other is suffering from a strange sickness: he is being eaten up by comparisons as though they were fleas. In the wall, a tunnel leads to who-knows-where. On the floor, notebooks are filled with other stories. Like the one about a café-concert where our two heroes are having a drink. In the midst of all the fun, men storm in armed with assault rifles. What good is imagination against terrorists?

Fascisms want to put all other narratives but their own to death. Against that kind of prison, Brice Matthieussent pays tribute to the imagination. Under the double auspices of Beckett and the Pieds Nickelés, he strings tales together for an explosive dance. A novel that is both hilarious and wince-worthy, both a warning and a celebration.