“1er Mille” collection
Arléa éditions
Date of parution : 24 août 2006
ISBN : 2869597452
13 € / 124 pages

“People who slip away imperceptibly but who matter forever, people who pass away, people who will never love us, or love us no more, those superficial encounters that still prey on our mind … What an impression they leave! But most of all, why did I lose them?

Of course, the list is incomplete. I’ve forgotten some people. There are people missing, those I’ve set aside. It’s possible that the most important file has been lost. But I think the people in question will know who they are and that people who are in no way connected with my existence will find in this a pretext to pick up the telephone or write a long letter to one of the people that matter to them.”

Marc Molk opts for an entirely scientific, quasi-militaristic system of cataloguing his lost loves, friendships and passing encounters. File by file, the author inventories the people missing from his life today, evaluating the “loss coefficient”, “share of responsibility” and “chances of rekindling the relationship”. Lost love, mislaid friendship or premature death, neighbour or classmate, each file is meticulously compiled to describe the connection between the two people. This is also a counter-portrait of the author who, in his descriptions of those he has lost, in his emotional questionings, lapses of memory, resentments and rushes of feeling, is just like any one of us.

• Podwrath, Lise-Maris Jaillant, Wrath, 17th october 2007
• « Pertes vives », Barbara Lambert, Point de vue, july 2007
• « Pertes humaines par Marc Molk », Anne Crignon, Le Nouvel Observateur, 29th november 2006
• « La critique Evene », Elise Charquet, Coup de coeur EVENE, 15th august 2006

• September 2007 : First selection of the Prix du Style 2007
• 24th June 2007 : Participation au festival Par Monts et par Mots, Parc de la Villa Marguerite Yourcenar, 2266, route du Parc, 59270 Saint Jans-Cappel
• 16th June 2007 : Extracts read by Ariel Wizman and Marc Molk, at the festival Le Marathon des Mots, Nouvelle Vague section (with Joy Sorman, Antoine Buéno, Eva Kristina Mindszenti, Karine Reysset et Grégoire Polet), Hôtel d’Assézat, Place d’Assézat 31000 Toulouse
• 13th December 2006 : Jeanne Laffitte Library, 25, Cours d’Estienne d’Orves, 13001 Marseille
• 08th > 10th December 2006 : Au coin de la place… la littérature, Le Parefeuille Library, 7 place aux herbes, 30 700 Uzès, with Maïssa Bey, Delphine Coulin, François Dupeyron, Thierry Jonquet, Rachid Koraïchi, Luc Lang, Grégoire Polet, Zahia Rahmani, Michel Schneider
• 02th December 2006 : Book Fair of the XVIème arrondissement
• 30th September 2006 : Extracts read by Valérie Da Mota, Altérité Library, 9, rue des gâtines, 75020 Paris
• 19th September 2006 : Extracts read by Sarah Vermande and Nicholas Mead, Mardis littéraires du Café Saint-Sulpice, créés par Jean-Lou Guérin
• 26th August 2006 : Odyssey Library, Place de la Cathédrale, Papeete, Tahiti, Polynésie française.