In his bag, Laurent Lefebvre has archives of his uncle, photos of him. In his head, he has his whole story. For his second book, entitled “Mer promise”, the native of La Bouillie has chosen to return to the fantastic journey of his uncle, Francis Lefebvre, who swapped his daily life in the Côtes d’Armor for that of a sailor in Newfoundland between the two wars.
“He always told us his stories, the whole family was fascinated. When he died in 2012, the idea of passing on his story was unanimous.” Boardings, shipwrecks, wars: from New York to London via West Africa, the protagonist ignored his agricultural and Catholic ties from the age of 14. In “Mer Promise”, Laurent looks back on the youth of his hero, his setbacks in the oceans of the 1930s, until the start of the Second World War.
“I could speak on his behalf”
To get a true-to-life rendering, the sixty-year-old searched departmental archives, conducted interviews, and explored family treasures. Also, the fifty pages of narrative that his uncle left behind served him well. “He wrote as it came to him, straightforwardly, with very technical terms. My role was to give a form that pays homage to his writings, to his life.” The book is written in the first person singular: “I know this story like the back of my hand. With all the work that went into it, I was able to assimilate his way of thinking. I could speak on his behalf.”
The legitimacy of writing
In 2019, Laurent published his first book, “Happiness for All”, a biography written in collaboration on the Tunisian artist Jaber Al Mahjoub. With this first experience, he could think about writing the life of his uncle. “Writing fell into my lap. After scribbling a few texts, I was told that I was rather gifted”. In parallel with his life as a court-appointed trustee, he is an art enthusiast, a collector and now a writer. Far from having been exhaustive about his uncle’s life in his new publication, Laurent explains that he still has a lot, a lot, to tell about him. But as he keeps saying: he will tell that in a future book.
Practical
“Mer Promise, historical story by Francis Lefebvre” has been available since June 5 from Le Lys Bleu editions. Laurent Lefebvre will be signing books on July 13 in La Bouillie; July 20 in Plérin; September 14 in La Cédille in Lamballe and September 21 at the Newfoundland Museum in Saint-Malo.
