Jérôme Bonnetto was born in Nice in 1977. He now lives in Prague, where he teaches French. After “The Certainty of Stones,” “The Silence of the Carps” is his fourth book and his second novel published by Inculte. Through his literature, he pays tribute to his adopted country of 12 years, the Czech Republic.
In “The Silence of the Carps,” everything begins with a strange encounter between Paul Solveig, a Czech plumber, and a leaking faucet. During his visit to Paul’s home, the craftsman accidentally drops an old photograph of his mother, who disappeared in his native Moravia (a region in the Czech Republic) during the Communist era. This strange photo, of great formal beauty, fascinates Paul. With his wife gone and the faucet fixed, nothing holds him in Paris any longer. Thus, the young man leaves France to find this unknown woman, swallowed up behind the Iron Curtain more than thirty years ago, and the artist who immortalized her. He then lands in the small town of Blednice, in the heart of Moravia, to pursue his wild investigation. But Paul Solveig is far from being a clever detective.
This Livre Azur prize, created in 2013, honors writers from the region or those who have forged ties with it. It brings together book lovers by having them join a popular jury tasked with choosing a winner from recent publications.
