If it weren’t for the word “if,” my father would be a millionaire. A stupid schoolyard saying from back in the day that came to mind when reading this novel. Not the millionaire, but the word “if”. It plays a major role in the novel by French author Brigitte Giraud.

In “Living Fast” she tells a story based on her own biography. 20 years ago, her husband Claude died in a motorcycle accident in Lyon. A few days earlier, the two of them had signed the purchase contract for a crooked house. Brutal sequence of events: purchase agreement, accident, move, funeral. Brigitte Giraud will live in this house with her little son Theo for 20 years; it will become a witness to her life without Claude.

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