Pascal Convert's 'La Constellation du Lion' excerpt published by Grasset

An excerpt from Pascal Convert's book 'La Constellation du Lion' has been published by Grasset, as featured on artpress.com. The text is a lyrical, autobiographical meditation on memory, time, and writing, centered on the author's mother. Convert recalls childhood scenes with his brother in a garden, observing his mother Elisa's obsessive care for her roses and her habit of cutting stems, only to forget them in plastic bags. She filled school notebooks (pink, blue, pale yellow) with large, sprawling letters, writing about daily life—the smell of manure, waiting for the postman, sewing, making coffee. The author notes that his mother wrote about six words per line and twelve lines per page, totaling seventy-two words, half of Anatole France's 'Le Mannequin d'osier.' The notebook cover, titled 'Constellation' in italics, featured a propeller plane, possibly a Lightning P38 F5-N, evoking Antoine de Saint-Exupéry, who died on July 31, 1944. Convert interprets his mother's choice as a rejection of seriousness, aligning with 'The Little Prince' and 'Alice in Wonderland.' She used drugs anarchically, seeking parallel worlds. The text weaves quotes from Lamartine and references to Lewis Carroll, blending mundane observations with existential reflections.