A vast fresco of family and history with highly contemporary stakes.

Spanning 200 years of European history, this story is an intimate portrait of the author's family and their slow, painful migration from Eastern Europe toward France, where the author was born in 1958. Through his family's saga, he analyzes how history influences the lives of so-called ordinary people, illuminating extraordinary aspects of their stories. But this story is also a powerful reflection on the idea of Europe and a passionate call for compassion and empathy for the sufferings of those in migration today. An intimate and yet universal work by a famous, award-winning novelist.