Jean-Michel Guenassia is a new name in European prose, author of the novel “The Club of Incorrigible Optimists.” French critics called his book great, and French lyceum students awarded the author the Goncourt Prize. The hero of the novel is twelve years old. This is Paris in the early sixties. And this is the notorious transitional age, when everything: school, communication with parents and life in general is difficult. Michelle Marini is no different from her peers, except for her passion for photography and selfless love of reading. He also has a secret hideout - the back room of a Parisian bistro. There, strange people who fled countries separated from the free world by the Iron Curtain argue, grieve, play chess, waiting for their fate to be decided. Surprisingly, it is here, in this room, nicknamed the Club of Incorrigible Optimists, that the power lines of the era intersect.