LO241 Café Littéraire: Total Chaos ("Total Khëops"), by Jean-Claude Izzo

  • 24 Oct 2025
  • 3:30 PM - 5:00 PM
  • A member's apartment in the 11th. The address will be in the reminder emails.
  • 0

Registration

  • New WICE Members
  • Susan Vogt

Join waitlist

Note: The registration limit for this activity has been reached. Please put your name on the waitlist and you will be notified if a spot opens up.

Total Chaos is the first novel in Jean-Claude Izzo’s gritty Marseilles Trilogy, a landmark of French noir that blends crime fiction with social critique and Mediterranean lyricism. The story follows Fabio Montale, an ex-cop drawn back into a violent underworld when two childhood friends are brutally murdered. Set in the sun-drenched, volatile streets of Marseilles, the novel explores themes of loyalty, lost ideals, racism, corruption, and the personal cost of justice. As Fabio investigates, he’s forced to confront not only the criminal forces at work but also his own past and complicity in the chaos around him. Izzo’s Marseilles is not just a backdrop but a living, breathing character—multicultural, decaying, and deeply human. With its blend of poetic language, political edge, and emotional depth, Total Chaos transcends the crime genre, offering a mournful, passionate portrait of a man—and a city—struggling to hold onto a sense of meaning amid collapse.


The book group meets at the organizer's apartment. The directions, door code, telephone number, etc., are sent in the 7-day and 1-day reminder emails, following registration.

Two spaces are reserved for new WICE members. If no new WICE members have registered before 17 October, those two spaces will become available to the general WICE membership.

Good to know: 

  • WICE members can register for this event online using WICE's fast and secure online system. Simply click on the link and follow directions.
  • Not a member? You may be able to join some events as a nonmember for a small fee which includes a 3-month membership. Please send an email to wice@wice-paris.org if you have questions. We look forward to talking with you.