Hebdo books: you are doing the cause for the defense of nature in Answer the night. Has it always been a concern?
Agnges ledig: There has always been ecology in my books, but it is true that I slowly slipped to the bond that unites humans with nature. I live myself on the edge of the forest, I come from an eco-friendly family. So I have a very anchored ecological consciousness, but it was in the face of the climate emergency and the inaction that I decided to use what I do, write, to fight.
In the environmental novel we expect to find a plea against hunting. This is not the case, why?
Because I am frightened by the polarization of society. If we are not for, we are against … and I find it ridiculous! With us, in the Vosges, as in the book, we are faced with hunting and we chose dialogue rather than confrontation. It works very well. On the other hand, I am opposed to certain cruel, even illegal practices. One of my characters adopts my point of view in the book: an animal may suffer less from being shot precisely, in a fair and ethical practice of hunting, than an animal locked in an industrial farming, transported unworthy in a slaughterhouse.
“I am like idefix, I cry every time a tree falls”
You take for Ariane thread The invisible walla 1963 novel signed Marlen Haushofer. What did you shoot?
It is an incredible book, the heroine is blocked in nature by a glass wall. She must survive by hunting. She goes beyond her aversion to kill an animal when injured or to ensure its own survival. What I have retained from this book is its ability to return to the essentials. She has nothing, manages with what she finds in nature to survive. It brings her back to her wild side. I heard the artist and writer Claudie Hunzinger speak in this sense of “ferality”. This word means the return of a domestic species in the wild. And I find it very beautiful, maybe we will be forced to come back to it one day.
The “bad guy” of your story crystallizes all vices, cruelty, violence, toxic masculinity, and in addition, he is capitalist. It's very polarized this time.
Men like that, it exists! I don't feel like I am caricatured. And I'm talking about her intimate flaws. It doesn't excuse anything, but allows you to understand. I did it director of a sawmill because the question of forests is fundamental. I denounce the shaved cuts which are absolutely aberrant. This character deals with nature as a commercial exploitation, but I defend that you have to live with it, while respecting, otherwise we run to the disaster. In addition, I am as idefix, I cry every time a tree falls …
Will your fans have the joy of finding certain characters?
It's not a sequel, but we find the characters in my previous book, A makeshift shelter. It's been four novels that I take up some characters, a bit like in The Human Comedy de Balzac. Main people become secondary, or vice versa. To name them, we find Rémi, Adrien, Capucine and Clémence.
-“I wanted to renew the exercise with a corpse and also get out of the feel good box in which I do not find myself”
Behind your heroine, Thémis, tattoo artist, we recognize the goddess Chasseresse Artémis. What does this mythology zest bring you?
I borrow this character who comes from afar, and I take him to our time to show that nothing has changed. Artemis, Diane among the Romans, is a rebellious woman, who wants an arc like men, who will become the protector of the forest and the animals she houses. Artemis hunts, but does not support animal suffering. She will also want, it is important in my story, staying a virgin. Which allows me, through Thémis, to speak of a crazy love story. A love that strikes in spite of themselves two beings, the terrace, but who will choose not to break their respective lives.
There is timeless love, but also murder. The thriller tempts you?
This only concerns the second part of the novel, but yes, there is an investigation. Because I'm crazy about thriller. Fred Vargas, Olivier Norek, Bernard MinierI adore. I wanted to renew the exercise with a corpse and also get out of the feel good box in which I do not find myself.
How did you find yourself labeled Feel Good?
I was put in this box in 2013 with my second novel, Just before happinesswho talks about the death of a child and received the Maison de la Presse Prize. Do we consider that I am feel good because there is hope in my stories? Is that why my books feel good? I want to say no, because in this case all the books are feel good. In the sense that it feels good to read, quite simply. I write dark stories, but it feels good because no one reads to hurt.
You slipped an amazing QR code at the end of the book, what do we find there?
We hear all the sounds of the animals of the novel. At the start, I wanted to do with sounds what Süskind managed to do with smell in The perfume. I went to consult an audio-naturalist, and we torn off our hair to try to describe animal sounds with words. This Qrcode somehow responds to this initial ambition.
