1798. The armies of Bonaparte capture Rome and prepare to loot the Vatican. While trying to remove priceless manuscripts from the clutches of the greedy French, Antonin Fages, a priest and librarian, discovers a strange confession written in a language which brings him back to his Occitan childhood and his youth as a humble vicar in Margeride, during the terrible year 1764 when a calamity sent by God devoured children and young girls throughout the countryside.
The discovery of this manuscript condemns Antonin to relive three years of hell, from thirty years ago. Three years of tracking down a Beast who terrorized the land, killing, slaughtering and devouring everything in its path.
At the time, Antonin was not able to shed light on a mystery which was much bigger than himself. This confession, however, surely contains a terrible secret because others, less well-intentioned than Antonin, wouldn’t hesitate to kill in order to steal the manuscript. The pursuit of it forces the librarian to wander the underbelly of Rome at the risk of his life, trying to escape the army of shadows which follow him without mercy.
Year of publication of this edition : 2008 (544 pages)
Editor : Points
The author : Born in 1958, Patrick Bard is a photojournalist, novelist and travel writer. For many years Patrick Bard has chosen to vacation in the village of Canourgue in Lozère, not far from where the events of the Beast of Gévaudan took place.
