The Impossible Baby - Hélène Frappat

Description

What if a skeleton could awaken something far more than an investigation into an extinct species?

At the Musée des Confluences, Hélène Frappat is captivated by a Steller's sea cow, an immense sirenian driven to extinction in just twenty-seven years. Their encounter sparks a patient, playful investigation that ranges from Arctic waters to Homer's sirens and the poems of Louise Glück.

But one ghost can conceal another. In Lyon, a city of magic, the sea cow's skeleton gradually leads the author back to her father and to a tragic disappearance one spring. Guided by the memory of her favorite Hollywood actress, a little girl follows the thread of her past to a mysterious crypt.

A sensitive and surprising literary exploration in which extinct species, myths and buried memories intertwine to reveal an intimate story.