An unpublished and unfinished novel by Michel Tournier will be published on November 7 with the title “Les Fausses Fenêtres” (The false windows). The Gallimard publishing house announced it on Thursday. “StThis is Michel Tournier’s first narrative work, previously unpublished. It dates back to when, after failing to enroll in philosophy in 1949, he decided to dedicate himself to the novel form,” Gallimard declared in the publication calendar sent to the press. At the time Michel Tournier was 25 years old and discovered that the discipline to which he had dedicated himself for years did not want to open its doors and welcome him. He then dedicated himself to literature, alongside various jobs in the fields of journalism, television and publishing. But it took him a long time to find the right novel formula and then become the great author he was.
“Les Fausses Fenêtres” tells the story of thirteen-year-old Nicolas, who lives in the family castle and sees ‘a strange friend of his father, Porphyry, initiator-philosopher, accompanied by two angels, Gémeau and Gémelle'” This 168-page book is “ to be considered an exploratory text, an initiatory tale as well as a philosophical tale, which allows the nascent author to trace his imagination and measure the extent of the challenge”. Michel Tournier had dazzling success with his first three published novels, ” Vendredi ou les limbes du Pacifique” in 1967, its adaptation for young readers in 1971, “Vendredi ou la vie sauvage”, and “Le Roi des aulnes” released in 1970. He died in 2016, at the age of 91.