Christmas eve. The whole family is reunited around their father and mother. Only yesterday an imposing figure who terrorised his children, the father, a victim of Parkinson’s disease, has become a prisoner of his own body. The words he formulates in his mind no longer cross his lips. Simple movements betray him.
André, the oldest of the children, is nearly sixty. He has never loved the man, who was always abusing of his authority, lying and manipulating to shore up an image of an all powerful patriarch. Despite this, André is anything but an unfeeling witness to his father’s decay.
What does one do in the presence of a person for whom all the pleasures in life are strictly forbidden. Should you prolong his life or assist the person in putting an end to his suffering. All around the table, opinions are divided.
Once again, Gil Courtemanche allows us to experience a stunning human tragedy. By putting into words a drama which speaks to each of us, he asks in a new but just as powerful way the question that was at the very heart of his first novel. Why do we live ?
Why do we die ?