The newspaper shop is going to close. Newspaper shop? Bookstore, really, one which, over the years, had turned into the hub of social life in this small town. People would go there to pick up the paper, buy an eraser or a book and to chat with the neighbors that they never bumped into otherwise. The narrator is a son of the working-class. His mother started with a stand on the market and worked her way up the merchant’s ladder to the privileged position of selling books. Through school and family sacrifice he wound up working in the capital, as a civil servant for the Ministry of Finance. Distance. Heartbreak. Distress. Powerless sense of betraying your roots. The young man describes his childhood, the joys of making window displays, managing stock, promoting personal favorites, unpacking boxes of books, and of not selling only bestsellers. A passionate approach to the trade. But also the throes of a beloved profession and the breakdown in small-town social networks caused by the disappearance of local shops. As well as a young man’s difficulties at changing social class and seeing his childhood fade away. Belonging to two antagonistic worlds and feeling unable to reconcile them…

Curtain!, a first novel, is a touching tale of the decline of the French economy since the 70s, which has led these past years, to the disappearance of local shops, including independent bookstores.
It is also a confession of how difficult it is, over and above professional achievement, to leave one’s social class behind.
Finally, it is a vibrant homage to the bookseller’s profession and a son’s magnificent portrait of his mother.