What happens in libraries at night, behind closed doors and in front of deserted check-out desks? Do readers choose their own books, or is it actually the other way around? Are librarians as drab as they say? Does your dress code affect your reading habits? Do people come to the library to work, travel, check their e-mail or just to stay warm? What if book-loving were a martial art?

After art and music, Cyrille Martinez explores the world of public reading. In this theoretical fiction, readers will meet an old historian who mysteriously vanishes from the stacks, a Red librarian who’s not as dull as he seems, an Angry Young Book that’s never at a loss for words, and more.

Spinning off from the civilized world of the National Library of France, this story leads us to urban forests where readers meet in a dark, wild library, where freedom to read and write what you will is the only rule.

This novel, a well-documented fantasy, takes us behind the scenes at the largest library in France.