Here is Where We Meet, novel by John Berger, first edition in 2005. Translated in French by Katya Berger Andreadakis for Éditions L’Olivier (2006).

No one appreciates the detail of being alive more than the dead. In Lisbon, a man encounters his mother sitting on a park bench who laughs with the impudence of a schoolgirl. She has been dead for fifteen years. In Krakow market he recognises Ken, his passeur, the most important person in his life between the ages of eleven and seventeen. They last met when Ken was sixty-five – forty years ago. The number of lives that enter any one life is incalculable. In this nomadic and playful book which travels through fictions across Europe, seemingly disparate stories reveal themselves to be linked, mislaid objects find their place and sensual memories penetrate the present.

« Put a cherry in your mouth, don’t bite it yet, now for a split second remark how the density, the softness and the resilience of the fruit match perfectly the nature of your lips which hold it. »

« There are a hundred ways of turning the back in bed. Most are inviting, some are languid. There is a way, though, that unmistakably announces refusal. »

« The number of lives that enter our own is incalculable. »