The scapegoat

Benjamin Malaussène works in the public relations office of a Paris department store, where he is paid to calm down furious shoppers. He is good at it, until a bomb tears through the store, leaves victims dead, and suddenly the man who soothes complaints is the one everyone wants to blame. Pennac plays the situation for laughs, with a cast of Malaussène's unruly family and a story that follows the first step of a larger series.