“Wound, black thorn.” These were the words that the poet Georg Trakl made his sister Gretl utter in a famous poem written shortly before the battle of Grodek, during the First World War. The echo of that dramatic beauty fills this intense and moving book, which goes far beyond the incestuous relationship between brother and sister: these pages are above all a commitment to language. And to how it faces life, love and death.

The first image that this novel, at once delicate and terrible, powerful, encapsulates is that of the brother and sister who, as children, play the piano together and share readings... The great German poet who stars in it, heir to his admired Hölderlin, was also described as crazy, like his teacher. In fact, he was called bohemian, vicious, satyr, alcoholic and drug addict, and it was said that from him “only melancholy and the death rattle that precedes death spring forth.” But Trakl also produced one of the great poetic works of the 20th century.

«The passion that these pages show can only lead to madness and death... A novel without equal about love, waiting and suffering. The story of the suicidal poet and his excessive love, pure and impure at the same time.» Le Magazine Littéraire

«An important book and perhaps more feminine than we might initially believe... The presence of Margarethe (Gretl), sister, in love more than lover, and also a poet in the shadows, as Combet lets us see, is what gives true meaning to this subtle narration; that is to say, this novel is because she was.» La Quinzaine littéraire