One Lonely Man

His last work, "One Lonely Man", could easily have been titled "A Tale of My Father". Frédéric Begbédér turns Jean-Michel Begbédér into a true hero of a novel. His childhood, spent in a school reminiscent of a prison with a strict regime, seems to have come out from under the pen of Dickens. A youth that began with a perilous journey around the world ended at a prestigious American university. But is there a CIA agent behind this portrait who, with the help of a double identity, serves the Americanization of the world, following in the footsteps of Ian Fleming's notorious hero?

While writing about his father with his characteristic biting irony, Begbeder makes no secret of the fact that he is actually asking questions of himself. He seeks an explanation for the traits of his character that turn out to have been inherited or directly influenced by this "Frenchman who thought himself an American when in fact he was English". Or, as he himself admits, "I wrote all my books to bewilder someone who is no longer here. This is the first one I'm writing about myself."