City of Children

A child grows up in a confined space among other children. He sleeps in groups, eats at a common table, goes to school. His mother has not visited him –not once. But she does write him letters, sent from his uncle’s address. He writes back to this address, as he has no other clue. He is confined in a large square surrounded by barbed wire that constitutes his whole life. His uncle brought him here. The adults around him, the group leaders, the superintendent, the director, everybody belongs to a very strict hierarchy. Time stands still and every year is the same as the one before. This is a novel about childhood, the deep inside and the wilderness outside; a book about the «Cities of Children» that existed from 1947 until 1998 mutely and invisibly.