A young explorer sets off from bustling Paris to the remote French hinterland. He dreams of exploring rural life and the customs of the locals in detail. The local mayor becomes his guide through the paths of the Marshes. Behind the mask of ordinariness, the hero will discover both humorous and terrifying secrets. After all, even his guide is also, by profession and vocation, the chief undertaker, a young boar is the receptacle of the local abbot's soul, and the village fool is a true seer...

And all of them are subject to the eternal transformation of fate, the inexorable Wheel, the cycle of life and death. Only once a year does it stop, and Death takes a breather. Then, the members of the Burial Brotherhood gather for their annual feast to discuss pressing issues and celebrate Life—filling their bellies with food, drinking liters of wine, and deafening their palates with table speeches! They certainly know everything about the world and man.

The exquisite text of Mathias Enard, rich in cultural and historical allusions, sometimes Homerically funny, Rabelaisianly rich, and sometimes psychologically poignant, is a true literary feast.