Alexis Ragougneau is a playwright and The Madonna of Notre Dame is his first novel. He has worked in Notre Dame Cathedral helping monitor tourist crowds and knows well its infinite secrets and the forgotten souls who linger in its darkest corners.
“A novel of tender, shy wisdom whose characters remind each other that memory lives in the body, loosened like knots by the right touch. Exposed reconciles old age to its theme of regret. It is, however, Blondel’s true talent that we embrace that regret—not only as an opportunity for joy, but as a polestar to guide us places we’d never have gone without it.”
—
Patrick Nathan, author of Some Hell
Alexis Ragougneau
