Notre Temps Readers’ Prize 2025
Anza-Borrego Desert, California. Tasked with restoring the ‘impossible railway’ and the railway bridge spanning Providence Canyon, Paul Carter introduces himself to the residents of the Dry River Café & Resort, the only campsite in the area. Everyone is delighted at the future economic benefits the project will bring. Except for Jean-Baptiste, known as J.B., a Frenchman who has been living there, in seclusion, for years, and whose only pleasure seems to be lacing up his roller skates to cover miles. Until the day when, out on the trail, he finds an abandoned notebook. Written by a certain Stéphanie, a Frenchwoman like himself, it speaks of a railway, a tunnel, and Providence Canyon…
Who is Stéphanie? Where does she come from?
More than just an investigation, it is a quest that begins. Where will this stranger—the only link between Paul and J.B.—lead them?
Set against the backdrop of the American West, Corinne Cotereau’s debut novel—which reads like a road movie—invites us on a journey into the heart of contemporary America, exploring the lives of those left behind and the struggle of man against a hostile natural world.