Paris, November 13, 2045: Amélie M. Chelly's Futuristic Thriller That Rekindles The Memory Of November 13th At The Bataclan.
In a Paris close to ours, shaken by AI, digital bubbles, and shifted geopolitical lines, a group of friends navigate through secrets, loyalties, and threats. "Paris, November 13, 2045," the new novel by Amélie M. Chelly from Éditions du Cerf, intertwines the personal and the geopolitical, memory and the present. And it grips the heart... because November 13 is not just a date, it's a collective earthquake.
A futuristic novel that speaks of today's world.
2045 is not the distant science fiction, it's tomorrow. The international order has shifted, artificial intelligence writes texts in series, events are experienced in virtual reality, social bonds break in digital bubbles that filter the world...
In this credible setting, six Parisian friends meet, united by a friendship that is less simple than it seems. At the center, Vincent, a Bataclan survivor, holds on to the ritual of commemorations and refuses to let memory fade.
Until the day a new threat enters the city and their lives. Between public tension and private vulnerabilities, the situation ignites.
What is the book about without giving everything away?
We follow a group of six, each with their blind spot, regrets... and secrets. The dynamic is simple at first, almost comfortable, but then the announcement of a novel project within the group acts as a catalyst, and everything goes awry. The narrative then shifts towards a well-researched thriller, where the rise of an emerging Islamism weaves its web against a backdrop of a tense Europe. In terms of style, the text alternates between contemplative scenes and accelerations, sharp descriptions and biting dialogues, with this sense of familiar strangeness that clings to big cities when they hold their breath.
Why This Novel Awakens the Memory of November 13th
Thirty years after 2015 in the diegesis, memory is not a motif; it is the very architecture of the book. It permeates choices, angers, silences, and makes every gesture a bit more solemn.
What strikes is the way individual memory of trauma interlocks with collective memory, as if each commemoration brings back the question we all quietly ask ourselves, over and over: what did that night do to us, and what are we doing with what it did to us?
The novel takes a gamble on restrained emotion, never spectacular, and it is precisely this tone—modest and resolute—that resonates.
A mirror of contemporary fractures
The book discusses AI, but more so the social discomfort surrounding these tools, and the fascination mixed with anxiety that they provoke. In 2025, 53% of French workers report using AI at work, 64% for personal use, yet a significant portion remains uneasy, indicating a growing digital divide. The novel captures this tension and embeds it in the daily lives of the characters, where tools become habits, then norms.
Another sign of the times is the virtualization of experiences. The market for immersive realities is exploding globally, even though adoption remains uneven, and we are beginning to see a future where ceremonies, debates, and even intimate moments are experienced under a headset. Yes, it sounds like fiction... but the trends are very real.
Finally, the issue of reading is not spared. In France, the average reading time is declining, and the number of books read per year is decreasing, with an average of 31 minutes of reading per day. Amélie M. Chelly's novel goes against the current by reminding us that literature remains one of the rare places where one can take the time to examine reality, free from background noise, with the kind of attention that is lacking elsewhere.
A thriller, but not just that.
There's the trail, the investigation, the threat, the alert scenes... and then there's everything else, that "rest" that makes the difference: the care for the sets, the objects, the interiors, the bouquets, the sensuality of a fabric, the vibration of a voice in a white room. At certain moments, one thinks of those narratives where the political and the sentimental converse, without ever merging. And then, there is Paris, a near but recognizable future, whose customs have changed, whose streets tell of other trades, other modesties, other fears.
An author who knows her fields
Amélie M. Chelly doesn't come out of nowhere. A sociologist of religion, Iranologist, associate researcher, and lecturer at IPJ Dauphine, she publishes reference essays with Éditions du Cerf. This expertise permeates her fiction, providing it with structure and avoiding sensationalism. One can feel the knowledge of organizations, discourses, ideological shifts, and a perspective that, even in fiction, never loses its connection to reality.
Why do we feel like reading it now?
Because the book arrives just in time. As November 13th approaches each year, memory returns, with its measured gestures and carefully weighed words. This novel celebrates nothing; it questions. It asks: what do we do with our bubbles, our filters, our digital routines? How do we still talk to each other when the algorithm chooses our interlocutors? And more simply, how do we remain friends, lovers, parents, when the world around us speeds up and we no longer have time to sit down. The text doesn't give lessons; it leaves space, that rare space, for the reader's thought. (And that is beneficial.)
What can be said about it without giving spoilers
The novel progresses in circles, with a controlled tension that gives the reader time to breathe between jolts. The polyphony of perspectives avoids caricature; the political remains embodied, the intimate is never merely decorative. The common thread is memory, its burden and its promise. The ending takes an unexpected turn, living up to what the book has patiently built... Indeed, one closes the volume thinking that literature has not yet had its final say.
Practical information
- Author: Amélie M. Chelly
- Publisher: Éditions du Cerf
- Title: "Paris, November 13, 2045"
- Release Date: October 2, 2025
- Format: 272 pages, 140x215
- Public Price: €21.90
- ISBN: 9782204172417
- Availability: in bookstores and online
Context, to delve deeper
If we cross-reference the novel's plot with some public data, we realize just how much the projection is not without basis. In 2024, 10% of French companies were already using AI, 33% in organizations with 250 employees or more, a number sharply on the rise, placing AI at the heart of organizations, and thus at the center of ordinary lives. And what about reading in all this? Less time, fewer books... paradoxically, these are reasons to choose texts that earn their place within us.
Nota bene
In the French tradition, we refer to this as anticipation rather than "science fiction" in the strict sense. Anticipation starts from the present and pushes already visible trends, with minimal technological deviations to maintain credibility. "Paris, November 13, 2045" clearly fits into this vein, treating the future as a mirror of the now.
Where to buy it
The novel is available in bookstores and on major platforms. It includes the presentation and the blurb which summarize the project well without giving too much away.
Conclusion
A forward-looking book that thinks with us and for us. A thriller without flashiness, preferring a subtle tension to narrative pyrotechnics.
And a simple, powerful reminder that a commemoration is not a static ritual but a living work of memory.
Recommended because it's smart, sensitive, and stays with you long after the last page.
