FRAGILE

JÉRÔME GARCIN

“It was too much. Too fast, too soon. Too unprepared for this new onslaught of suffering and regret. Too much anger against fate. Too much death. Too much prayer and misericordia. Too many wreaths laid on sunny mornings. Too many never agains.”

Over the course of six months, the author's mother and brother pass away one after the other. While they are battling illness, a secret emerges that rewrites the family's history.

Longlisted for the Jan Michalski Prize 2025

Published in France: Gallimard (2023)

Jérôme Garcin (France, 1956) is a French journalist and writer. He heads the cultural section of the Nouvel Observateur, produces and hosts the radio programme Le Masque et la Plume on France Inter, and is a member of the reading committee of the Comédie-Française. In 1994, he received the prix Médicis essai for Pour Jean Prévost. The son of Philippe Garcin, an editor at the Presses universitaires de France (PUF), who died at the age of 45 as a result of a horse accident. He would dedicate his first novel to him, La Chute de cheval, for which he was awarded the Prix Roger Nimier in 1998. When he was six, he lost his twin brother Olivier in an accident. He dedicated Olivier, a narrative published in 2011, to him. Garcin won the Grand Prix de Littérature Henri-Gal in 2013 and the Prix Prince Pierre de Monaco in 2008.

For rights information, contact: foreign-rights@gallimard.fr

English sample by Charlotte Coombe of 64 pages (14,000 words) made available by the generosity of the Jan Michalski Foundation

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‘How do we deal with sadness, how do we cope with loss? In his misery, Jérôme Garcin has one thing going for him: writing, a shroud for loved ones, a balm for those left behind. A remarkable story...’

Pascale Frey, Le Journal du Dimanche
‘The author has created an undeniably impressive work in which form and content enrich each other, centred around an obsession with love and a touching expression of unwavering gratitude to those who have nurtured his existence.’

Marc Dugain, Les Echos
‘Garcin proves once again that he has taken his place among the best contemporary French writers, with a tone, style and musicality that are instantly recognisable.’

Maurice Szafran, Challenges
'It is a cry of pain, a book of tears and contemplation, a Way of the Cross in times of pandemic that is impossible to read without trembling with emotion.'

Grégoire Leménager, L'Obs
‘The book is infused with an intoxicating confidence, a resilient faith. With stirring emotions that dry up the tears. Jérôme Garcin has written a profound love song to his loved ones, to his ‘large, radiant’ family.’

Xavier Houssin, Le Monde des livres

FRAGILE

JÉRÔME GARCIN

“It was too much. Too fast, too soon. Too unprepared for this new onslaught of suffering and regret. Too much anger against fate. Too much death. Too much prayer and misericordia. Too many wreaths laid on sunny mornings. Too many never agains.”

Over the course of six months, the author's mother and brother pass away one after the other. While they are battling illness, a secret emerges that rewrites the family's history.

Longlisted for the Jan Michalski Prize 2025

For rights information, contact: foreign-rights@gallimard.fr

English sample by Charlotte Coombe of 64 pages (14,000 words) made available by the generosity of the Jan Michalski Foundation

‘How do we deal with sadness, how do we cope with loss? In his misery, Jérôme Garcin has one thing going for him: writing, a shroud for loved ones, a balm for those left behind. A remarkable story...’

‘The author has created an undeniably impressive work in which form and content enrich each other, centred around an obsession with love and a touching expression of unwavering gratitude to those who have nurtured his existence.’

‘Garcin proves once again that he has taken his place among the best contemporary French writers, with a tone, style and musicality that are instantly recognisable.’

'It is a cry of pain, a book of tears and contemplation, a Way of the Cross in times of pandemic that is impossible to read without trembling with emotion.'

‘The book is infused with an intoxicating confidence, a resilient faith. With stirring emotions that dry up the tears. Jérôme Garcin has written a profound love song to his loved ones, to his ‘large, radiant’ family.’

If Things Were As They Are