The novel takes place into two periods: during the German occupation of Paris in World War II and in 1997. The main plot is the search of Dora Brüder, a Jewish girl of French nationality, who disappeared in Paris in 1941. Her parents searched for her through an advertisement. Modiano, who is very familiar with the area in which Dora was lost, decides to look for her. He describes the collection of data on the origin and work of her parents, reviews from the local archives and the school, streets related to the family some of which still remain or have disappeared. The results seem disappointing, as they involve more speculation than facts, and the little that is known for sure is that Dora Brüder died in Auschwitz. Modiano wonders why a memory fades away so soon, and why people are forgotten. In addition, he asks why many French Jews were sent to Auschwitz. The novel is not linear and is more like a research paper full of data and benchmarks (flashback techniques are used to refer to one or another time) that blends with memories of Modiano’s childhood. This technique has been interpreted as the search by Modiano for his own identity. Patrick Modiano (1945), a Jewish Frenchman, was awarded the Nobel Prize for Literature in 2015.
M.L. (Spain, 2015)