Le diable est dans les détails

' I am a travel companion, an accompanist, which in itself doesn't mean anything. The word isn't even quite correct since I never accompany my clients to the end of their journey. But, outside of these walls, friends and acquaintances seem almost too eager to speak of the originality of my job. Others are intrigued by the word accompanist and confuse my job with that of smuggler. I can see it in their eyes: small groups of fearful refugees silently stumbling along dangerous cliff-side paths, hidden by the underbrush, fleeing something or someone. This is what they imagine and, I must admit, they aren't really that far from the truth... ' When he meets Alexandra for the first time, Jean-Christophe, volunteer worker in a center for palliative medicine, knows that this passionate young woman doesn't have long to live. Day after day, he observes the strange ballet of her family and friends around her deathbed, and is privy to the small and great lies, the hushed secrets spoken about her. While Alexandra obstinately refuses the reality of her death. Inspired by a true experience in a palliative medicine wing of a renowned Parisian hospital, The devil is in the details is a powerful lesson on domesticating death. Marc Durin Valois is the author of l'Empire des Solitudes (2001) and Chamelle (2002) both of which have received several literary awards (Prix La Rochefoucaud, Prix Claude l'Heurteur, Prix Tropiques and a nomination for the Prix des Libraires) as well as unanimous praise in the media.