Spectres, written by /écrit par Thomas Gunzig (book /livre) EN /FR
Hello dear readers, /Bonjour chers lecteurs,
I met Thomas Gunzig at my very first book fair as an author (see the second photo).
He's very approachable and a really nice guy. He's also a radio commentator who talks about current affairs (and isn't afraid to speak his mind), with a taste for dark humour.
And on top of all that, he's Belgian, just like me! 😊
J'ai rencontré Thomas Gunzig lors de mon premier salon du livre en tant qu'auteure (voir 2e photo).
C'est une personne très accessible, bien sympathique, chroniqueur pour la radio sur les sujets d'actualité (et qui n'a pas sa langue en poche), pratiquant l'humour noir.
De surcroît, il est belge comme moi ! 😊
Thomas Gunzig and I, at the book fair /Thomas Gunzig et moi, au salon du livre
(photo previously used for my author account 
Summary in French on the back of the book /Résumé en français au dos du livre
Summary in English /Résumé en anglais :
“What we could see from the secondary dimensional plane was a landscape. A strange and peaceful landscape. A perfectly immaculate black sky, without stars or celestial bodies. The ground seemed to be made up of rectangular structures piling up on top of one another, like dead leaves in autumn. As far as the horizon—or whatever served as a horizon—there was nothing but a gently undulating terrain, evoking swells on a calm ocean.”
When a physicist discovers access to a parallel dimension, it doesn’t take capitalism long to seize it. Bases are built. Drilling begins. Destruction follows. The objective? To exploit what had long been humanity’s greatest mystery.
“I wanted to write a novel about madness, greed, love in the midst of despair, the magic science is capable of, limitless curiosity, the nature of chance and general relativity. Above all, I wanted all of this to become an adventure that would sweep me along, with characters who would feel like friends, drawing me into their world.”
Thomas Gunzig
Born in Brussels, translated as far afield as China, Thomas Gunzig is a novelist, short-story writer and screenwriter. He has won the Victor-Rossel Prize, the Triennial Prize for the Novel and the Magritte Award for Best Screenplay.
The book Spectres is his most recent novel, released on August 20th, 2026. I bought it at the end of August and, apparently, it was highly anticipated in bookshops.
This is the first book I've read by this author, as I wanted to discover his writing style.
Having listened to some of his radio commentaries, I already knew what he thought about the future that awaits us if we continue to “ravage” the planet and promote capitalism.
Reading this book confirmed my suspicions, and the outlook is far from rosy... at least, not in the near future, and therefore not for our current generations.
Thomas Gunzig seems to have a background or a strong interest in science; otherwise, he probably wouldn't have written about a subject like this. He explores various possibilities, drawing in particular on quantum physics.
Personally, I don't know very much about the subject, but I was still able to follow along. So either it was well explained or the scientific concepts were presented in a way that made them accessible to the general reader.
In the first part of the novel, the author also touches on an issue that occasionally comes up in films and TV series (and probably in books too): a pupil, student, young employee or early-career researcher has their work or discovery stolen by a colleague or superior, as a result of misplaced trust on one side and an abuse of power on the other.
There's a good chance this book will be translated into other languages, just like his previous works. I have no idea how long that might take, so we'll just have to be patient.
For my next read, I'm turning to a French writing duo whose work I really enjoy, but whom I haven't read in quite a while.
Happy reading, and see you soon!
Le livre "Spectres" est son roman le plus récent, sorti ce 20 août 2026.
Je l'ai acquis fin août et il était, apparemment, fort attendu dans les librairies.Il s'agit du premier livre que je lis de cet auteur, je voulais découvrir sa plume.
En écoutant quelques-unes de ses chroniques, je savais déjà ce qu'il pensait de l'avenir prévu si on continuait ainsi à "saccager" la planète et à prôner le capitalisme.
En lisant ce livre, cela m'a été confirmé et cela n'a rien de rose, .. en tout cas, pas tout de suite et donc pas pour nos générations actuelles.
Thomas Gunzig semble verser dans les sciences, sinon, il n'aurait pas écrit sur un sujet tel que celui-là. Il envisage des possibles, en parlant, notamment, de la physique quantique.
Personnellement, je ne m'y connais pas beaucoup sur le sujet, mais je comprenais quand même, c'était donc bien expliqué et/ou c'était suffisamment bien vulgarisé.Dans la première partie du roman, l'auteur aborde aussi un sujet dont on parle de temps en temps dans des films ou séries (et probablement dans des livres). Un(e) élève ou un(e) étudiant(e) ou un(e) jeune employé(e) ou un(e) jeune chercheur(euse) se fait voler son travail, sa découverte par un(e) collègue ou par un(e) supérieur(e) hiérarchique, à cause d'un excès de confiance d'un côté et d'un abus de pouvoir de l'autre.
Ce livre a de fortes chances d'être traduit dans d'autres langues, comme l'ont été ses précédents ouvrages. Je n'ai aucune idée du délai, mais un peu de patience donc.
Ma prochaine lecture ira vers un duo d'auteurs français que j'apprécie beaucoup et que je n'ai pas lu depuis un petit temps.
Bonnes lectures et à bientôt,
Florence
Source photos : tous les clichés sont pris par nos soins
I used Deepl Translator and ChatGPT to translate French into English
Proud member of the Principality of Bastion