An English translation by William Rodarmor was published by Hodder & Stoughton and Other Press in April 2020.

[1][2][3] The novel portrays the lives of teenagers and adolescents in peri-urban areas of eastern France in the 1990s, and deals with the consequences of deindustrialization.

Mathieu chose to engage further with this topic for his second novel, although focusing on children born near the end of the 1970s, who were teenagers in the 1990s.

[10] This desire reflects the goals of 19th-century French writers, such as Honoré de Balzac and Émile Zola, as well as contemporary authors, including Annie Ernaux.

[13] The novel was adapted into the 2024 film of the same name directed by Ludovic and Zoran Boukherma, starring Paul Kircher in the lead role.