Retrouver Estelle [French]

By Véronique de Bure and Eric Mouzin

FINDING ESTELLE

"Say it all. For a year, I blackened over two hundred pages with notes typed onto my computer in tightly bunched lines, recording thoughts and reminders on a dictaphone. For a year, at home, I gathered together letters, emails, newspaper articles, videos, DVDs and minutes of my meetings with judges; I scribbled down and dictated my memories, in a monotonous voice, always forbidding myself the least emotion. One tear, just one, would mean collapse. The only feeling I allow myself is anger. A cold anger, a calm revolt. The rest... I'm not allowed to go there. Not allowed to give in, to feel sorry for myself. There's still so much to do. You can't do and live at the same time. From the very first day I chose to do. And I suppressed living. On the evening of 9th January I stopped living."

On 9th January 2003, between 6.30 and 6.45 pm, nine-year-old Estelle Mouzin disappeared on the way home from school. Since then, nothing. What happened to Estelle? Nearly eight years with no news, despite the work carried out by investigators and her father's non-stop fight. Here for the first time, Eric Mouzin, agrees to open up. His account - which is free of pathos - is devastating. Between the lines lie voiceless rage and unspoken pain that are all the stronger for going unsaid.

No one has forgotten Estelle, the little girl in the red jumper, whose face with the slightly sad smile hung on the wall in every post-office, bakery, chemist shop... Eight years later, France still finds this story devastating. Every year, on the anniversary of her disappearance, the Association Estelle organises a "White March" in Guermantes.

Eric Mouzin is a civil liabilities expert for insurance companies. He lives at Le V sinet, near Paris.

V ronique de Bure is an editor. She has written one novel, Une confession, published by Stock.

• Format: Paperback
• Language: French
• ISBN: 2234063485
• ISBN13: 9782234063488
• Release Date: January 2011
• Publisher: Stock
• Length: 180 Pages
• Weight: 0.50 lbs.
• Dimensions: 0.4" x 5.3" x 8.5"