During a writing residency in Berlin in 1997 he wrote his most ironic and "subtly comic" novel "La Télévision" which won the Prix Victor-Rossel in Belgium. After publishing an essay, "Autoportrait (à l'étranger)", based on his experiences living abroad, he then decided to embark on a series of novels (entitled « cycle of Marie Madeleine Marguerite de Montale » but formally known as « cycle of Marie », named after Marie, the main protagonist) depicting the long and uncertain breakup of two lovers—Marie and the narrator—over four seasons during the course of a year. The books were written between 2000 and 2013 and constitute his "Magnum opus". The « cycle of Marie » started in 2002 with "Faire l'amour" ("Making Love", 2004), followed by "Fuir" in 2005 ("Running Away", 2009)—awarded by the Prix Médicis in France—, "La Vérité sur Marie" in 2009 ("The Truth about Marie", 2011)—Prix Décembre—and finally "Nue" in 2013 which closes the tetralogy.