Auxerre is a small town, seemingly quiet and calm. Christophe Regnier, on whose behalf the story is told, is a handsome young man who writes entertaining articles on the topic of “first times”: when a full striptease took place in Paris for the first time, which poet first sang the top hat in poetry, etc. He lives with a charming young woman, Eglantina, whose younger sister, Prune, a bright representative of “modern youth,” dabbles in drugs and is a drug dealer. His neighbor, the mysterious Monsieur Leonard, is improving in his profession as a thanatopractor. He is the Embalmer. Tragic events unfold around him - disappearances, murders, attacks - which are becoming more and more frequent and in which a lot of people are involved: police officers, homosexuals, provincial intellectuals, erotomaniacs, prostitutes, rebellious anarchists... Of course we are talking about a “black comedy”. Dominique Noguez, who wrote the dialogue for director Moka (he also appears in the novel), makes numerous attacks on good morals and good taste. He even goes so far as to imagine the trio Soller - Ango - Houellebecq staging a “literary show” at the central stadium of Auxerre. When reading the novel, you either laugh or are horrified. Noguez, who has studied the embalmer's craft in detail, does not hide anything from us: we learn all the subtleties of the procedures necessary to bring the final polish to the deceased. A specialist in humor, to whom he has dedicated numerous essays, he skillfully combines comedy and erudition, whimsical stylistic and grammatical research with delusional inventions and gentle provocation. Critic and novelist Dominique Noguez has published about twenty works, including the novels “Martagons”, “Black Love” ” (Femina Prize 1997). Fayard also published his essay “Houellebecq as He Is” (2003).