Youness Bousenna's New Novella Explores Existential Crisis Through a Museum Guard's Eyes

Franco-Moroccan writer Youness Bousenna has published a new short fiction, "La Flemme de la forme" (Editions 49 pages, 49 pages, €7.49), released in 2026. The story follows an African security guard who, after a night guarding the Musée Dupruyten d'Anatomie pathologique in Paris, experiences a profound existential breakdown. The museum houses deformed human remains in jars, which trigger the guard's psychotic delusions and philosophical questioning about reality and the arbitrariness of form. Bousenna, born in Avignon in 1990, is a journalist and author of the 2024 novel "Les présences imparfaites" (Rivages), which won the Prix Félix Fénéon. His new work is part of Editions 49 pages' collection "Départ de feu," which publishes short texts under 48 pages. The publisher, founded by Pierre Poligone, aims to revive reading with concise, demanding works. Bousenna cites Polish author Witold Gombrowicz and American H.P. Lovecraft as influences, noting Gombrowicz's obsession with form and Lovecraft's cosmic horror. The novella includes a postcard of a pine cone, symbolizing the "dictatorship of form."