On January 7, 2015, a day that started like many others, Maryse Wolinski woke to find her husband, Georges, a satirical cartoonist, already up and getting ready for work, headed to an editorial meeting at the Charlie Hebdo offices. This turned out to be no ordinary day: this was the one on which the Kouachi brothers barged into the meeting with Kalashnikovs and murdered Georges and 11 others in cold blood.
With tenderness and affection, Wolinski weaves memories of her 47 years with Georges together with almost minute-by-minute accounting of that fateful Wednesday, when her life, and that of so many others, was irreparably shattered. She shares the sweetness of Georges's affection for her, his adoring gaze--"a look that inspires longing, confidence, a desire to live, a desire to love. A look that makes you addicted to it"--along with the numerous sticky notes he left throughout the decades expressing his love for her.
She questions why the police were so slow to respond to urgent calls from a number of people that day, and why there was such a long wait to see Georges's body. She wonders what more could have been done to prevent such a tragedy. Expressive and heartrending, yet not melodramatic, Wolinski's narrative places readers inside the soul of a smart woman deeply in love with her partner despite his flaws, a man whose loss is profoundly felt throughout her testimony. Having a tissue handy while reading is a good idea. --Lee E. Cart, freelance writer and book reviewer