"There are so many people in a city we don't worry about, so many people working alongside us whom we don't see, don't speak to, whose health, happiness, desires, and hopes we never inquire about." These words, from the work Labeur by Julie Bouchard, an invited author for the 2025 edition of the festival, highlight the importance of stories and fictional characters that resemble and unite us.
The festival emphasizes how stories, whether local or from afar, create bonds of complicity. Paper heroes, through their fight for a smile, a moment of peace, humor, or dignity, offer us their destiny as consolation and a sign of friendship.
Martine Laval, literary advisor, explains that the festival invites readers, both amateur and professional, to meet authors. These authors, through different literary genres, address life and the desire to share their emotions. Writing and reading are presented as essential actions for better understanding the world, its whispers, its furies, and its 'clamors' that need to be re-enchanted today.
