‘My name is Paul’ are the only words spoken by the child who survived a tragedy in which his parents and sisters perished. Carbon monoxide killed them.
He was immediately adopted by ‘Aunt Armelle’, his mother's sister, whom he did not know. He was raised on Rue Varin, near the Guillemins train station in Liège, a street lit by the neon lights of prostitution. Then came his apprenticeship at the butcher's shop, where Léa, his boss, formed a romantic relationship with him that would last a lifetime.
Yes, this Paul is inspired by a politician who really existed in Belgium in the 1960s and 1970s.
While the resemblance is striking, it is only a pretext for writing a completely fictionalised biography of the character, with little connection to the original.
