Vernon Subutex is a former Parisian record dealer, evicted from his home, who has to contact his old friends to crash at their places for a few days. A former punk, he is going through a serious crisis that leads him into a precarious situation, but his adventure will prove to be as trying as it is optimistic. From one apartment to the next, Virginie Despentes creates a gallery of portraits as diverse as they are touching, as if his downfall was only a pretext to renew old friendships. This is what the whole novel is about: recreating links between people, talking about the passing of time, expectations that went wrong and life –which is a bitch. In the end, it is a true Balzacian "human comedy" that can be read in these pages, a metaphor for a contemporary France full of contradictions, doubts and regrets, unacknowledged desire, fears, but also optimism and compassion.

Published in 2015, the book (first part of a trilogy) received an excellent critical reception and propelled Virginie Despentes (born in 1969), already a recognized writer and director, into the list of great French contemporary authors.

We read this book in the winter of 2020.