Crushed by an overwhelming grief, Karim abandons everything and retreats to a place at the border between sky and sea, hoping to begin again. On the other side of the Mediterranean, Kenza is chasing a manuscript that could shake the entire literary world — a document as secret as it is coveted. The two seem to have nothing to do with one another, and yet everything is quietly drawing them together; when their paths finally cross, nothing will be the same again.
Weaving a tender meditation on fatherhood and love with a suspenseful literary investigation, Sami Mokaddem changes register once more to offer a modern fable "for the grown-up children we all are." It is a homage to Antoine de Saint-Exupéry — to his wanderings, his secrets, his little-known connection to Tunisia, and his mysterious disappearance — published for the seventy-fifth anniversary of The Little Prince.
Winner of the Tunisian State Prize for literary creation in 2022, Il était deux fois le Petit Prince is a warm, melancholy, and inventive novel about loss, storytelling, and the things we pass on.