Despite their omnipresence in our daily lives, social networks and new technologies still occupy a shy place in adult literature; as if these two worlds entered into dissonance by creating some editorial oddity.
Posted yesterday at 6:30 p.m.
It is however with ease that Nathan Devers, at the height of his 24 years and of an already impressive pedigree (graduate of the prestigious École Normale Supérieure), has made digital drifts the core of his novel. The setting: Julien Libérat, piano teacher in distress, sees his life, his passions and his couple crumble into dust of boredom. Decor 2.0: the Antimonde, a virtual world that replicates our planet and its cities exactly, offers its participants the chance to rebuild a much more exciting digital life. Julien, now known as the avatar Vangel, will throw himself into it with body (and soul) lost, abandoning his musical keyboard in favor of the computer keyboard, until he becomes a star of this carbon copy of reality. But while he reaps the forbidden fruits of virtual success, the progenitor of the Antimonde, addicted to religion, pulls the strings to his advantage.
On hypercurrent issues tackled head-on, the young writer describes, with a certain candor and despite a few bombastic passages, to what extent the dictatorship of the screens and cyberaddiction have become significant phenomena of our century, and how their excesses threaten to aggravate. Imperfect, but ambitious and original, this novel caused a lot of talk when it came out, for good and for bad, still making it to the list of finalists for Goncourt and Renaudot.
The artificial links
Nathan Devers
Albin Michael
330 pages