It all begins in a small town in Belgium near the French border on the morning of the festival of St. Woelfred. There are dead fish scattered everywhere seemingly blown in by the wind. The empty quarries of Villon are soon to be used as toxic waste dumps. Are the fish a sign from the saint or a trick played by Contexture, the dance group who once got naked at the Vatican?
The lives of six people who live in the town are about to be changed forever.
A story with magic and fish… and the lost poems of Rimbaud.
'I fell in love with this novel the moment I read it. The language and imagery were so fresh and vivid, I thought Christien must be a poet (and turned out to be right.) The book has a political sharpness, wit, and worldliness; it has a compelling plot, a vast number of deftly differentiated voices; and it has characters you will never forget.' Karen Joy Fowler (author of the NYT Bestseller The Jane Austen Book Club).