UNUSUAL. The disturbing concordances between the Christmas card of the Paris-Caen-Cherbourg train and the novel of a Toulouse woman
Since December 15, 2022, an anonymous Christmas card has been circulating on the train between Paris, Caen and Cherbourg. After reading our article on the mysterious missive, an author from Occitania was captivated by the resemblance to her first novel.
Last weekend, we will tell you the mysterious story of this anonymous letter hidden in the Paris-Caen-Cherbourg train, discovered by Joffrey, a Norman returning from a mission for work in Corsica. The nice surprise had appeared in front of the thirty-something when he had opened the tablet of his seat.
“Dear Stranger”, an introduction in English, for a text written in French filled with empathy and kind wishes as the holidays approach. On the left page, some indications allow to imagine the profile of the author, probably a Norman student.
Nearly 800 km away, in Muret near Toulouse. Sabrina Polizzi-Maffre comes across our article, and is amazed. This mysterious letter has disturbing matches with a novel she just published a few weeks ago. Self-published, a few dozen copies sold, it seems unlikely that the student from Caen could have read it, and was inspired by it to write the Christmas card left on the train.
Still, the similarities are troubling. In his book titled On the edge of reality, the main character, a man named Hilmi receives enigmatic messages from a woman. “Of English origin, she begins her letters in English, and ends them by signing AJ, Exactly like the letter found on the train between Normandy and the capital“.
In the romantic universe of Sabrina Polizzi-Maffre, AJ are the initials of Alina Jefferson. Would she finally be a student in Caen? Because in the novel, it is impossible to know if the heroine really exists or if she is the fruit of the imagination of the main character.
Hilmi wakes up every morning with the nagging impression of having lived her dream, of having been closer to this mysterious AJ who leaves her messages. The day passes, he forgets. However, a flowery and woody smell hovers around him permanently. The following night, he lives again with the feeling that he must find this woman by following the messages she leaves him.
Sabrina Polizzi-Maffre, author of “At the limit of reality”
In the book, Alina Jefferson leaves messages on a plane, in a taxi… but not on a train. Nevertheless, “this story of a Christmas card found on a train, somewhere, it could very well correspond to the rest of the novel“, exclaims the writer. Because a volume 2 is indeed in the buyers of the one who is above all Creatorand for whom writing a novel came as a matter of course, one day out for a walk in Montmartre.
“It’s probably just a coincidence, but it’s as if the novel had come to life, enthuses Thierry Maffre, the author’s husband. The novel was published locally, in Toulouse, in self-publishing of 200 copies. Perhaps this beautiful Christmas story will allow him to be spotted and obtain greater notoriety. Perhaps we will eventually find the author of the card left on the train. As Sabrina writes in the book: “let them dream a little more“.