Jean Roscoff no longer understands the world. He originally intended to write a tribute to an unknown African American poet with his book "The Seer of Étampes," but instead, he has sparked the biggest literary scandal in recent French history. A fierce backlash is raging on the internet, and the press and media are publicly putting the retired academic, who has a penchant for alcohol, nostalgia, and faux pas, on trial. The accusation: cultural appropriation. Since Roscoff hit the streets in the 1980s as a lion-mane-wearing post-punk, the ideological coordinates of leftist anti-racism have shifted. What was once considered progressive is now seen as reactionary.

Abel Quentin acts like a seismograph for societal earthquakes, recording the latest upheavals in the treacherous terrain of morality. With satirical sharpness, he dissects the dynamics of digital opinion warfare and crafts a biting portrait of the media world. Above all, he takes his characters at their word, following them through their vastly different environments and showing a keen interest—always sharp-tongued, never merciless—in their struggles with the world, with others, and with themselves.