Armel Job returns with Un père à soi

29/03/2022

Armel Job has just published a new novel, Un père à soi, which tells the story of Alban, a very orderly man, who one day receives a disturbing phone call from a woman who gives him an envelope containing photos that will change his life.

When Alban meets the young woman who called him, she explains that she had been present during the last few days of a certain Michelle and that she was committed to carrying out her last wish; this wish was that Alban should know, after her death, that all her life she had never loved anyone but him... This first name does not mean anything to him at first, but then, little by little, the memory of a short-lived youthful love affair comes back to him. This episode, which had not really remained in his mind, will however have major consequences on his life, that of his family and that of his messenger.

This novel takes us, once again, to Liège and, as always, Armel Job places the plot in a setting and a reality that are close to us, in real places where true events have taken place, with also a few nods, in this case a café, Le Pendu de Saint-Pholien, the title of a novel by Georges Simenon. This author is someone Job is particularly fond of and with whom he shares an ability to dissect the paradoxical complexity of humans.