In the life and daily routine of the clerk Jean Deser, who lives in Paris at the beginning of the twentieth century, everything is minor, restrained, correct, polite, small. His apartment is small. His dreams are small. Every day is similar to the previous one, and only on Sundays at the end of the week does he have the opportunity to experience the stimuli of the modern world that is developing before his eyes. Indeed, within the life of the city – which surprisingly resembles our lives now, a hundred years later – there is also room for a love story and adventure. Jean Deser is the average wage earner, the embodiment of the modern person – like me and maybe like you – who walks the fine line between work and leisure, between passion and boredom, between feelings of belonging and feelings of alienation. De Mirmont's tools are gentleness, compassion and irony. Jean de la Ville de Mirmont disappeared from the world all at once – the familiar case of a young writer at the beginning of his career, who wanders the city day and night, thinking, dreaming, creating a style, waiting; placing his hopes in the written page. He published one masterpiece, two at most, and before those around him recognized the extent of his talent, he died and joined a primitive version of the "Club of 27". De Mirmont left behind this small and masterful work, which is not noisy but quiet, a work that will continue to resonate in the head of the reader who discovers it. "With this young man, a whole world of harmony and life disappeared... A delicate book like this was enough to immortalize his memory." François Mauriac "This small and gloomy book, in which existence is likened to a 'waiting room for passengers in third class' is very funny. And also very topical." Nobel Observer "Jean Deser is like a brother to me. He has the skill to survive in the void of life." Michel Houellebecq