Presentation of the book La loin, by Sarah Jollien-Fardel, published by Sabine Wespieser.
Abrupt awakening in reality
Throughout the book, we will follow Rose. She is devastated. It must be said, there is something to go crazy about: his daughter Anna was mowed down by a van. Nothing makes sense anymore. We imagine it when we wake up: “I will cry as soon as I realize that a new day has begun. That I will have to fight for every gesture, every minute of every day. » The grieving mother is devoured with rage, with anger: “Who to judge my fury? I have a monopoly on the most terrible pain. » For three long years, the desire for revenge blinded him, made only impossible by those close to him who prevented him from prolonging the drama: “I am held in a room with wooded walls, attached to a tether. »
It’s poignant, overwhelming, it takes you far away.
Dive into memory
This is already what the title tells us: she is physically hampered, and seeks to regain her footing… Captive, Rose lets the memory of her origins rise to the surface: life on the mountainside, the two grandmothers, to whom she owes almost everything to the mysterious and early death of her mother. And then Camil, present at his side from a very young age, the childhood sweetheart who will end up marrying him. Together, they decide to return to the mountain: “I knew we were withdrawn from the world because of the fierce and systematic reproaches of my grandfather Albin (…) Rather than feeling tenderness for his son’s return to his roots, my grandfather only saw it as an unbearable downgrade. » In inaction, the recluse remembers the lost happiness, the mountain races, the family life around Anna: “Three summers ago, she was frolicking behind the grasshoppers, hopping on the stones of the stream, humming. »
It is also an evocation of a simple and fragile happiness, of which we are not always aware.
-Locked in memories, despite mourning, Rose must rediscover the feeling of being alive… Camil, “the one who knows how to listen to the void and recognize the song of birds” may well have the key that can soothe the childless mother as much as possible. The nurturing mountain becomes the abrupt refuge of inconsolable pain. And literature too. While Rose is sequestered, an anonymous voice sheds light on her days of random readings. The words pass through the door, pierce the anger, soothe the body: “I am hypnotized, anesthetized by its range, it captivates me and protects me. »
The chapters interweave memories and the story of reclusive life. In harsh, penetrating language, Sarah Jollien-Fardel modestly evokes the mixed feelings that run through the heroine. She also speaks of the power of words, to seek far away a lost soul: “I have descended as deep as possible into the darkness. Without dying. » Is there not always, as the poet says, at the end of sorrow, an open window?
La loin, by Sarah Jollien-Fardel, is published by Sabine Wespieser.
