“A wonderful portrait of a woman both imperial and bruised, a greying ravaged mother-wolf that still controls all those around her. A novel of rhythm and grace, a beautiful voyage with the gypsies.”—Le Monde

The story of Angelina, a gypsy matriarch, whose tribe is exiled to the outskirts of a French city. A young librarian comes to introduce the children to books and stories. She gradually gains their confidence and accompanies them through an eventful and tragic year. Ferney’s distinctive style powerfully involves the reader in the family’s disasters, its comic moments, in the love lives of the five boys, the bravery of the children, and, eventually, in Angelina’s final gesture of defiance.

Winner of the literary prize Culture et Bibliothèques.