Poulailler, a novel in three parts, begins with the childhood memories of the narrator, Antonio, whose parents emigrated from Portugal to France in search of a better life.

The reality of his existence is defined by the brutality of a father exploited by his employers and disappointed by his condition as an immigrant, and by the submissiveness of his mother. He seeks a refuge in the family hen house, where he finds in the cocks and hens companions and at times scapegoats.

We next meet Antonio as an adult waiting on line to visit an apartment for rent. The conversation he starts with the woman next to him is only a pretext to rant and rave about his childhood and all the traumas he has encountered ever since: his impotence, his inclination for drugs, his need to invent his own destiny…

In the last part, Antonio has become the subject of a study in a psychiatric hospital.

This atypical novel speaks to issues of origin and the problems of integration.