School Year 67-68: Louis will be 13 soon – it’s time for him to grow up. He can’t keep getting left back at school and peeing in bed indefinitely. No, this year is going to be different, they promised. First, a new setting: a French military post in the middle of the German countryside. Then his own role: as the son of the colonel in command of the regiment, he’ll be the child of the highest-ranking officer. He could be king of the hill, but everything’s complicated when you’re not sure of anything, not even how to spell your own name. Luckily, the times they are a-changing: young women talk about pills that let you avoid getting a bun in the over, parents go to movies where people make love. Even math isn’t the same, it’s new now. In the midst of all these mutations, Louis will achieve his own: learn to leave his childhood behind, discover more complicated sentiments, get closer to girls, enter into the ranks of men and become King – because all he had to do was open his mouth and pronounce obscenities to get heard.

Le Roi, c’est moi, is the tale of a youth growing up and learning about life. It’s also a novel that conjures up 1968 through a teenager’s voice. It’s funny, sensitive. The characters are described with tremendous affection. There are lovely pages about childhood – full of laughter and insouciance -, when life isn’t serious yet: just a game, a pleasant ride along, calm river.