Biography

Elsa Flageul twenty-nine years old. Passionate about literature, she studied cinema, wrote a dissertation on Jacques Demy and took acting classes at the conservatory. Her secret desire of being published one day is now fulfilled.

Louise is ten years old when she goes with her mother to the transfer ceremony of the ashes of Jean Monnet at the Pantheon. There for the first time she sees in the flesh and bone the President of the Republic, whose legendary dark silhouette, wearing a black felt hat upsets her instantly. A feeling of familiarity takes hold of her. She knows it, she can feel it : François Mitterrand can only be her own father. Louise then hastens to reveal her secret to her best friend. But in reality, Louise, known as Loulou, only sees her own father intermittently, since the latter has left home for another woman. Awkward, distant, mired in guilt, he struggles to express his love for his daughter. In spite of herself, little Loulou will push him to break the ice.

A first novel perfectly mastered and captivating from a promising young author. With the freshness of a language that seems to have a new outlook just for her, Elsa Flageul manages with great talent to interfere with the thoughts of a child's imagination. Her writing is as natural, as disarming as it is attractive. Her maturity surprises us as well. Her optimisum is a joy, in this very moving story tenderness outweighs bitterness. (Presentation by the publisher)

"The head buried in the jacket, the jacket buried in the satchel, the satchel on which the head is supported she really hopes to disappear that way. She wants to say something but she knows it's too late. He is disappointed. Maybe forever.

Can someone be disappointed forever ? Your error is so serious, so unforgivable that nothing or no one will ever forgive you ? Whether you are an outcast, forever?"

"Thanks to the fantasy of childhood, the awkwardness of family relationships takes on the appearance of a tender and endearing tale." (Camille Tenneson, Le Nouvel Observateur, February 12, 2009)