Growing up in post-war Paris as the sickly only child of glamorous, athletic parents, the narrator invents a make-believe brother - more brilliant than he can ever be. It is only when the boy begins talking to an old family friend that he comes to realize that his imaginary sibling had a real predecessor.
Philippe Grimbert is a psychoanalyst. He is the author of several works of non-fiction and a novel, Paul's Little Dress. He lives in Paris.