“I have always wanted to kill the sky, since early childhood. When I turned nine, I tried it: that’s when I met the good-natured policeman Raymon and ended up at Fountains. Here I had to explain to everyone that my name is Zucchini and nothing else, I had to study and go to bed on cue. But there’s a whole cartload of children and cartloads of feeders, and I’ll never forget any of them!” This is how the main character could briefly talk about this book. A not-too-educated boy who finds himself in a modern French orphanage describes in detail all the inhabitants of the “Fountains”, their relationships with each other and with the outside world, and most importantly, what is happening in his own head. What is it like to be an orphan that no one wants? And if someone needs you, what changes? There is a lot in this book that touches the soul and helps you remember that childhood dreams should come true. I would like to break down “The Autobiography of Zucchini” into quotes in order to show them to all adults who for some reason so quickly forget what it means to be a child. Gilles Paris (born 1959) doesn't publish new texts often: one novel every ten years is the usual pace for this former journalist, literary connoisseur and film buff. But each of his books is like a diamond: there are no extra words or passing episodes in them. “The Autobiography of Zucchini” was translated into Russian by Ira Filippova, who gave Russian readers books by Jean-Philippe Arroux-Vigneault, Timothée de Fombelle, François Place and many others. Written in 2002, The Autobiography of a Zucchini is well known in France: it has been filmed twice, once as a television film and once as an animated film. Gilles Paris has to fend off countless questions: “Is that you Zucchini?” He invariably answers: “Zucchini is each of us. At least a little bit.”