In the Café of Lost Youth by Patrick Modiano

In the Café of Lost Youth by Patrick Modiano is a book set in Paris in the 1950s. The book’s main subject is a 22-year-old woman named Jacqueline Choureau (nee Delanque) and known as Louki. Modiano is an atmospheric writer. His books have a sense of melancholy and are often about identity and memory.

The novel has four chapters, each narrated by a different character. The first chapter is narrated by a man studying engineering. He wants to be part of a group at Café Condé that includes Louki. The second chapter is narrated by a private detective who was hired by Louki’s husband to track her down after she left him. The third chapter is narrated by Louki herself. Louki suffers anxiety, is addicted to cocaine, and has been trying to escape and run away since her troubled youth. The fourth chapter is narrated by Roland, a writer who dated Louki. We learn that Louki killed herself by throwing herself from a window. She is a lost soul, and the other characters all try to understand her, but ultimately, they don’t know who she really is.

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