Les Fausses Fenêtres, an unpublished and unfinished novel by Michel Tournier published in November

An unpublished and unfinished novel by Michel Tournier will be published on November 7 under the title Fake WindowsGallimard editions announced Thursday. “This is the first fiction, unpublished to date, by Michel Tournier when, having failed the philosophy aggregation in 1949, he turned to the novel”indicated Gallimard.

Michel Tournier was then 25 years old, and discovered that the discipline to which he had devoted himself entirely for years was rejecting him. He turned to literature, alongside various jobs in journalism, television and publishing. But it will take him a long time to find the right romantic formula.

Fake Windows tells the story of Nicolas, 13, who lives in the family castle and sees himself settling there “a strange friend of the father, Porphyry, the initiator-philosopher, accompanied by two angels, Gemini and Gemini”summarizes Gallimard.

This 168-page novel is “to be considered as an exploratory text, which is as much an initiatory story as a philosophical tale, and which allows the emerging author to map his imagination and measure the extent of the challenge”.

Michel Tournier will experience dazzling success with his first three published novels, Friday or the limbo of the Pacific in 1967, its adaptation for young readers in 1971, Friday or wildlifeet The King of Alders in 1970. Died in 2016, at the age of 91, the writer entered the Bibliothèque de la Pléiade the following year.