The Cartoon Life and Loves of a Stupid Man by Marc Joan

As an independent comic book store owner and the heir to a pharmaceutical fortune, Philippe Favrier lives a life that straddles the real world and the realm of fiction. Struggling with mental illness, Philippe relies on his wife, Marilyne — a successful surgeon with her own haunting secrets — and a groundbreaking drug his father developed. Bound by their shared pain, they navigate their haunted lives, forever shadowed by the heart-rending loss of their baby, Antoine. Their fragile world begins to crumble when Philippe catches a disturbing glimpse of an unfamiliar profile in the mirror. And his uneasiness is further fuelled by an anonymous comic strip that arrives at his store, featuring a character bearing an eerie resemblance to him. Is Marilyne hiding an affair? Is she connected to the comic strip that’s tormenting him? As he probes deeper, Philippe is drawn into a web of deception, where the lines between reality and imagination blur — until his investigations into Marilyne and the malicious comic artist at last reveal the tragic truth.

Adult • Horror/Psychological • Literary Fiction