Prison by the River
Skagen, the church buried in sand
The pastor's doubts
Deep in the throat
Thetford Mines
And the organ stopped
Montreal, Quebec City
Winona's Beaver
Just before darkness falls
Planes, tractors, and waiting
Back to Skagen

Acknowledgements
Translator's Note

2019 Prix Goncourt winner
“A work that possesses both popularity and literary perfection.”
-Bernard Pibot (President of the Prix Goncourt Jury)

French national writer Jean-Paul Dubois
A warm comfort that breaks down prejudices about the world and myself.

『Not Everyone Lives the Same in the World』, which won the 117th Prix Goncourt in 2019, beating out Amélie Nothomb and receiving critical acclaim for being “a work that possesses both popularity and literary perfection,” has been published by Changbi Publishing Co., Ltd.
This is said to be the best work of Jean-Paul Dubois, a French national writer who is also loved in Korea for his novels such as “A French Life” and “Mr. Tanet, Don’t Jokes.”
This is the story of a man who immigrated from France to Canada, worked as a janitor at the Lexelcior Apartments for twenty-six years, and was imprisoned due to a coincidental incident. The protagonist's choice to be himself even in the midst of hardship shines through.
Although the plot could easily become heavy, the film is consistently calm and cheerful, as evidenced by the comment from Le Monde, a major French daily, that “Jean-Paul Dubois manages to capture moments of sparkling humor even in a painful story.”


This work, which shatters prejudices about the world and oneself through the theme of 'not everyone lives in the same world', was greatly loved by French readers to the point of becoming a bestseller with numerous SNS reading certification posts.
The award-winning work, "Not Everyone Lives the Same Life," has overcome concerns that it might lose popularity, and will offer deep empathy and warm comfort to Korean readers weary of the competitive system and pandemic-driven reality.


The life of an ordinary person who unexpectedly fell into ruin
The choice to become yourself at that turning point in life

This novel is about an ordinary person who unexpectedly falls and makes choices to become himself.
Father Johannes is a '19th century man living in the 20th century'.
The mother, a movie theater owner, willingly throws herself into the changing times, starting with the 1968 Revolution, but the father, knowing that the path he has chosen has become futile, cannot leave the ship that has already begun to sink, and gradually disappears.
My son Paul is a man who managed to survive the 20th century but has not adapted to the 21st century.
Paul's life begins in earnest in the New World, Canada, after leaving the Old World, France.


He is a person who not only quietly carries out the arduous management work of the Lexelcior Apartments, but also feels a sense of accomplishment and joy in attending to the residents' personal requests.
But since the millennium, a kind of change of hands has taken place in that world.
As the tenants who once appreciated his value leave one by one, the tolerant community disappears, and all-weather workers like Paul are ignored.
His parents' string of misfortunes, his wife Winona's accident as a seaplane pilot, his dismissal, and even his imprisonment that began with a single incident.
But even in the midst of this loss and misfortune, Paul Hansen makes a different choice than his father, Johannes Hansen, who collapsed within the framework he had set for himself.
Through his journey from prison, where he stands firm as no one else but himself, and even rewrites his father's life, readers will experience that success and failure, as viewed through the standards of the times, mean nothing in the face of human dignity.


Not everyone lives in the world the same way.

His father, Johannes Hansen, lived his entire life as a faithful pastor, but ended his life in disgrace due to his compulsion to gamble.
His son, Paul Hansen, despite living an honest and upright life, ends up becoming a criminal because he cannot overcome personal unhappiness and his hatred for the tenants' representative.
Paul's cellmate, Patrick, also has a human side, worrying about visiting his mother, being passionate about what he likes, and comforting others when they cry.
Mr. Reed, who is often called in to calculate compensation for every major accident and is often criticized by the bereaved family, is very affectionate and devoted to Paul.
In this way, there is something unexpected in everyone.
What's truly scary is judging without looking into the inside story.
By the world's standards, they are 'gamblers', 'attempted murderers', and 'cold-hearted loss adjusters', but if you look into their true nature, you cannot judge them so easily, and you can see that they actually lived more honestly and diligently than the average person.
You also realize that there are definitely some sparkling moments in their lives.
This work raises the important proposition that 'not everyone lives in the same world', and makes us reflect on our perspectives on others and, above all, ourselves.


The world's prejudice and discrimination against honest workers

Paul Hansen, who worked long hours at the Lexelcior Apartments, attending to the residents' personal requests in addition to his management duties, is reduced to a scapegoat by the new tenant representative who only talks about 'cost cutting.'
The changed world gradually expands the scope of discrimination against Paul and Winona, who say, “We did the work, not our money,” emphasizing that they are “different people” from the residents.
Apartment management regulations are becoming increasingly petty and sophisticated, justifying the exploitation and abuse of users.
Cost cutting and profit maximization ultimately trap everyone in a bureaucratic, almost despotic, society.
And that's not all.
As the fall to death of an employee of a subcontractor who was assigned to the Lexelsior maintenance project shows, the decline in the value of labor and the outsourcing of risk go hand in hand.
If the person who came to fix my house dies and it doesn't cost me money, then it's nothing.
Through the microcosm of the Lexelcior Apartments, the novel reminds us that human value remains constant no matter what we do, and denounces the reality that treats hard-working people as foolish "slaves" who don't even know how the world works.


A brand that has set a standard for modern French fiction.
Jean-Paul Dubois's answer to "How to Live"

Jean-Paul Dubois, who is credited with establishing a new brand in modern French novels, always focuses on the question of 'how to live' in his works.
The life he portrays is not all that beautiful.
A series of conflicts caused by misunderstandings between family members, the deaths of close friends, loss, and a life stigmatized as a failure unfold.
But the author does not stop there, and in this work, he provides an answer to the question, 'How can we overcome the misfortunes of life and become ourselves?'
How we view and live with the loss and misfortune that every human being faces in life is an important key to the question of 'how to live.'
The reason why Jean-Paul Dubois's novels, which comfort the lives of those who live differently and are hurt for their own reasons and suggest a path to life, are considered "novels of life" and loved is precisely here.


[Translator's Note]

Not everyone can adapt to the rules of the new world.
What is the world like in 2020, where the words "pandemic" and "new normal" are heard several times a day?
Still, some people will choose it with their dignity on the line because they have only learned that skill, or because of an attachment that comes from their aptitude and personality.
Thus, some will return to their roots from long ago, such as the heavens of their ancestors or the 'ends of the earth' of the Old Continent where giants live.

― Lee Se-jin