At 10 3/4 years old, Fred discovers life: girls, deceptions, people's stupidity, illness, death and how to make become a man in the midst of his parents, his brother, his sister, granny Nane, their dog, his classmates, and his friends - Aziz, Jojo and the others. He recounts the death of his grandfather with a great deal of tenderness; describes his testicle operation with humor; remembers with nostalgia his early romantic encounters, first with a young trapeze artist, and then with Myriam, the daughter of stock-breeders.

Fred Paronuzzi has that rare ability to preserve intact the child's eye view of the world, allowing us all a quick glimpse back at our own past. In his first novel, endowed with a remarkable style and a syntax peculiar to a 10 years old boy, the author in his quest to draw a picture of the lost innocence of youth, gives us a book full of humanity.