Owlish

Professor Q is a middle-aged literature professor in the city of Nevers, where his work, marriage, and private life have grown stale. He collects antique dolls and becomes fixated on Aliss, a music-box ballerina who seems to come alive, drawing him into a secret, consuming affair.

As Q retreats deeper into desire and fantasy, the city around him grows more unstable: protests spread, students disappear, and the university becomes a site of pressure and suspicion. Q remains largely oblivious, even as his friend Owlish, a mysterious guiding presence, and a strange painting complicate what is real.

The novel moves between dream, allegory, and political upheaval, making the city itself feel alive and mutable. Q’s personal delusions and the wider unrest increasingly mirror one another, until the story’s reality becomes hard to separate from its symbols and fears.