"They had decided to marry and take their time having three children, if possible, but they weren't in any rush. They had known each other for five years when he asked her to marry him, under the comforter. The orange comforter, he remembered. Making babies for a young couple that wanted children, what could be less complicated? Thinking back, they never could have imagined that so many devoted doctors and so much bureaucracy would be involved in such a simple project."
Through the bitter-sweet adventures of a couple that discovers it cannot have children, Offspring tackles some profound questions about human reproduction: what exactly does it mean to want children? Is a mother the one who desires a child or the one who nourishes the child in her body and pushes him into this world ? And what makes a father aside from a simple sperm? The man the wife designates, the law or genetic analysis?
Beyond biology, isn't the desire to have a child the basis upon which family ties are established? And how is the rest of one's existing family (brothers, sisters and parents) involved in creating a family?
Jean-Paul Carminati is the author of four novels among two are also starring our cynical but touching hero the laywer Bergamo La concordance des dents (Seuil, 2001) et Vice de fond (JC Latt s 2003)
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