The Family

A celebrated work of investigative journalism—soon to be an international TV series

They were always there among us… Three thousand of them, living in the heart of Paris, for three centuries. Yet they also remain secret, and completely hidden

Known as “the Family”, this is a community of three thousand individuals, bound by blood and an ancient eerie belief system. Practicing endogamy, marrying only within the group, they await the impending Apocalypse, their community completely impermeable—cousins marry cousins, just eight family names prevail: escape is impossible.

Everything beyond this family, and the small area of east Paris that they inhabit, is godless and depraved. As with many other cults, outsiders are the fruit of the devil, lost souls, unworthy of the divine truth that nourishes their world. But The Family is also something far darker and older. Born in the shadows of the Enlightenment, it is the chilling legacy of a clandestine religious movement that has survived for over three centuries. Who was Elie, the mysterious figure they took to be the Messiah? Who is Sister Elisée, the secret priestess, mistress of forbidden sensual ceremonies that would scandalize even the boldest of minds? What are the hidden ties between The Family and Freemasonry? And why are some of their most rebellious members living secluded in a village in Haute Loire?

Nicolas Jacquard’s dizzying, eye-opening investigation marks the first time that members of the group have broken their silence about the customs, taboos, suffering, and fears of an imminent Apocalypse …. And as we learn of the desperate faith they invest in “the Family”—those believed to have contact with God through mystical trances—questions abound: is it already too late for them? Has the end of times already begun? …