Some wounds do not heal.
They simply change places.
With Living the Unrepairable, Bernard Polet signs a first book of rare intensity, which refuses shortcuts and promises of consolation. After the brutal death of his sister, he undertakes a journey through absence, without seeking to embellish the unspeakable. Here, there is no question of recipes for "feeling better", nor of life lessons. Only truth.
What strikes from the very first pages is the accuracy of the gaze. Bernard Polet writes as one breathes after a shock: with difficulty, but because there is no other choice. His writing becomes a gesture of survival, a means of standing tall when everything that seemed solid has collapsed.
In the vein of Joan Didion, Delphine de Vigan, Philippe Lançon or even Brigitte Giraud, Living the Unrepairable explores this area where literature becomes more than a narrative: a space where human experience can finally be laid down, without judgment and without false hopes.
But what profoundly distinguishes this book is its refusal to transform grief into an exemplary journey. Bernard Polet does not seek to convince that time erases everything. On the contrary, he shows that some losses are never repaired. They are learned. They are inhabited.
Through the memories that return in waves, the guilt of the survivors, the body's reactions to trauma, the bursts of humour that persist despite everything, the author offers a testimony of heartbreaking sincerity. A text that will speak as much to those who have experienced a sudden loss as to the loved ones who simply seek to understand what a grieving person is going through.
A trained journalist, long the face of the magazine Télécinéma at RTBF and then host of the philosophical programme Les enfants nous parlent on Boukè, Bernard Polet brings to this first work a rare sensitivity, nourished as much by his professional journey as by his intimate experience. Writing here becomes a tribute, a refuge, and a way to continue to keep alive the one who is no longer here.
In an era where books are often expected to provide answers, Habiter l'irréparable chooses another path: that of support. It does not claim to repair the injustice of loss. It simply reminds us that it is possible to continue moving forward, even when the absence remains complete.
A deeply human book, of great elegance, that speaks to all those who know that some stories never really end. They continue to live within us.