Forthcoming on May 2026 at Éditions Gallimard (Paris).
Avenue of the Americas is the other name for Sixth Avenue in Manhattan. That’s where Genia lives, in a small studio apartment. A princess without a title and a Jew by fate, a Russian émigré but French at heart, she is a therapist in her own way. The narrator, who lives between Paris and New York, visits her regularly during his stays in the city. She guides him through his inner labyrinth. Until a serious illness strikes. The narrative then unfolds between two exiles: the chosen exile of America, which he doesn’t love, and the disorienting exile into which his convalescence has plunged him. We find him at a crossroads. How to change one’s life without destroying everything? How to reconnect with the living when you can’t return to what you thought you were? Thus emerges a geography of dreamed lives, abandoned paths, and unexpected possibilities.
Following The Saint fo the Family (Verdier) and The Husband (Gallimard), Avenue of the Americas is the third part of a series entitled Taking Stock.
Ill. Martin Wong