Les mots d’Hélio, by Nancy Guilbert and Yaël Hassan

After a terrible accident, Hélio has lost the ability to speak. His amnesic mother has arranged for him to live with the Dainvilles, a family he has never met. Recounted in the voices of the different protagonists, Hélio and His Words examines a range of emotions, from Mila’s anger at the arrival of a handicapped stranger in her home, her younger brother’s yearning for an older brother, and their housekeeper’s pain when difficult memories resurface. As for the speechless Hélio, he copes with his situation by associating each member of the Dainville family with a species of flower that he tucks away in an drawn herbarium, before Mila finally uncovers the secrets of the past…

Fiction, 15 x 22 cm, 252 pages