Je tape la manche

Synopsis of Je tape la manche

«Je tape la manche» is the autobiographical testimony of Jean-Marie Roughol and Jean-Louis Debré, published by Calmann-Lévy in paperback, in French.

One night, while begging, Jean-Marie Roughol offers to watch a cyclist's bicycle; that cyclist is Jean-Louis Debré, then president of the Constitutional Council. From that encounter is born a relationship of trust that leads Roughol to tell his story: more than twenty years on the street, from his childhood in the 19th arrondissement of Paris to begging on the rue Marbeuf. The account portrays the harshness of exclusion, with violence, fear and poverty, but also the solidarity and friendships that emerge in marginalisation.

Originally published on 7 October 2015, the book has 176 pages and the subtitle «Une vie dans la rue».

For readers of testimonies and social chronicles interested in exclusion, urban poverty and contemporary France.