Winter literary season: 3 novels to read

” The sources by Marie-Helene Lafon

With The sources, Marie-Hélène Lafon signs a sublime and subtle family chronicle, which runs from 1963 to 2021. A story set in Cantal – the scene of many novels by the writer who was born there – and told in three successive entries to draw the story of a family of peasants marked by the violence of the father. We discover a captive woman, looted by the protean violence of her husband. A man, who resurrects his resentment against his ex-wife this” Cannon ball ” Who ” it drove him crazy, with her dog eyes “but also against all these women who, since May 68,” they want to take the place of men “. And finally their daughter, now an adult, who returns to the ” sources » of his story by examining one last time the family home that he is preparing, with his brothers and sisters, to sell. This short novel, which is devoured too quickly, is carried by the novelist’s chiseled, precise and beautifully simple writing. His pen paints images of nature, of human beings, of life, so sensitive and detailed that images sometimes replace words. The beauty of his language contrasts with the harshness of what he says. The result is a dark and light novel that is an excellent gateway to the work of this great writer, who was notably awarded the 2020 Renaudot prize for her splendid The story of the son. To buy and offer without moderation!

*The sources by Marie-Hélène Lafon, Buchet Chastel, 117 pages, €16.50.

” This is not news by Philippe Besson

” Something happened “. On the phone, Léa’s breathing is short, distorted. The breath of someone who is choking, her brother thinks. She is 19 years old, has been studying dance for five years at the Paris Opera. She is 13 years old, goes to college, lives still with her parents. Alerted by an argument and the sound of breaking dishes, she left her room and slipped down the stairs. Before her eyes, in the family kitchen, the father stabbed the mother before fleeing. Seventeen stab wounds. ” dad just killed mom “, ends up letting go.
With This is not newsPhilippe Besson – whom we had already loved The last son (2021), variation around a mother torn apart by her youngest child leaving home – addresses the theme of feminicides in a dizzying novel. The latter seeks to highlight the little-talked-about point of view of children whose mother was killed by their spouse. Delivered by the voice of the young narrator, the story explores the difficult paths of the future of these invisible victims caught between anger, guilt, pain or misunderstanding. In an attempt to understand what happened, the teenager scrutinizes the past, discovering, at the same time as the reader, the many warning signs of the tragedy. But also the cowardice of a friend or the infractions of the gendarmerie. We are shaken by this sober and very fair novel which describes the via crucis of children destroyed in an attempt to survive. And again, learning to live again. An essential text.

*This is not news by Philippe Besson, Julliard, 208 pages, 20 euros.

A simple family story, by Andrea Bescond

We already knew about her Tickle, a successful play adapted to the cinema and inspired by the sexual assault committed during his childhood by a family friend. Dancer, actress, screenwriter, but also a tireless activist against male violence against women and children, Andréa Bescond is also a formidable writer. With her first novel, which she decided to write after learning that her great-grandmother had killed her husband following domestic violence, she signed a polyphonic family saga that spans multiple eras. In 1964, Louisette, pregnant with her, runs away from the family home to take refuge with her sister, with whom she intends to raise her child alone. More than fifty years later, Hervé discovers that the one he took for his mother isn’t actually one. At the same time, her daughter Lio, whom he has raised alone since his wife’s death several years earlier, discovers her secret. Weaving their stories to untangle the tangle of damaged destinies, the author explores the spiral of the unsaid, the transmission of secrets as traumas, the weight of family heritage, men’s violence, the temptation of revenge, but also the ways of reparation and possible happiness. We are fully into this turn the page served by a carnal, sometimes crude writing, as poetic as it is angry. A great success, sensitive without being melodramatic, testifying to the emergence of a sacred pen.

*A simple family story by Andréa Bescond, Albin Michel, 250 pages, €19.90.