From birth, Isor has been a different child. She doesn't speak, she doesn't hear, she shows almost no interest in anything around her. Is she autistic? Not exactly, the doctors say. Her parents love her, but they don't understand anything and are exhausted. Fed up with vague diagnoses and useless treatments, unable to manage her socially, they haven't enrolled their daughter in school. Now thirteen, she seems to only like foreign television channels and animal documentaries. Furthermore, Isor occasionally has terrible fits of rage, which cause chaos and leave her parents—Maude, a firefighter, and Camillio, a window cleaner for tall buildings—devastated. With such a unique protagonist, Alice Renard (Paris, 2002) could have crafted a story of extravagant, poetic, and non-normative sentimentality, but one rife with mawkishness. Anger and desire That's not it. It's a strangely emotional little novel about a girl who isn't normal.