Mehdi Azzam grew up in Vitry, a working-class suburb of Paris. Sports provide him with an escape from his tough father, and he soon gets noticed for his skill at soccer. After a promising beginning, it looks like his professional life will be crowned with success., His popularity soars when he’s selected for the French national team, then sinks abruptly while he playing in England. Playing in a foreign country, Mehdi becomes an unexceptional player.

Demoted, he winds up playing for Reims. His fifteen minutes of fame are over, but he’s still earning a decent living. The soccer player is living with his wife and daughters when a journalist informs him that an article will be appearing in the national press the next day: Mehdi’s wife is denouncing the domestic violence she’s been a victim of.

Les Divisions describes what the article will set into motion. The various concerned parties – lawyer, journalist, feminist activist, anti-racist activist, club manager and player’s agent – don’t display the slightest curiosity for what really happened between the two spouses. They settle for playing their roles… and for getting whatever benefit they can out of the situation.

Because nowadays, the truth doesn’t matter. Firmly held beliefs have replaced facts, and denunciations stand in for proof. Les Divisions, a modern version of a fable, is Eric Halphen’s second novel published by Buchet/Chastel.

Through Mehdi’s story, Les Divisions describes our times, when ideologies, clans and causes matter more than the truth, and affect how we see each other.