“Cross the mountains and come to be born here” by Marie Pavlenko

Next week the 42nd edition of the Brive Book Fair opens.

Marie Pavlenko, who is also known for her children's Books, will present her new novel there on November 8 and 9, Cross the mountains and come to be born here, published by Les Escales.

The story begins with Astrid, a woman in her forties, moving in. Grieving, she decided to leave everything behind, and put her bags in a house she had just bought, without even visiting it. His new home is located in a hamlet in Mercantour, between forest and mountain, at an altitude of 1900 meters.

Astrid takes refuge there with her grief but she will have an encounter that will change her life. During a walk, she discovers a young pregnant woman, almost frozen to death. Her name is Soraya, she is 17 years old, and she fled her country, Syria, to undertake a perilous journey on foot crossing borders. Thanks to a few words of English exchanged, they will gradually be able to get to know each other as the author explains.

“These are two animals that are in fact wounded, who will understand that despite a very different culture, a distance between them, a history and traumas that are not the same, they remain two women who have suffered. And this suffering, in fact, it is the needle which will begin to stitch up certain wounds because they echo each other, there is a resonance between them. And this is where, I also believe, a form of sorority resides. And then seeing the other suffer, even when oneself; we're not good, sometimes it's like a little harpoon that we can throw at each other, we're starting to get closer at least.”

A sisterhood beyond cultures, motherhood, the beauty of youth and that of nature, but also the mourning and suffering that accompany it, the injustice… there is all this in this poignant story which pierces the heart and which remains, as always with Marie Pavlenko, luminous and full of poetry.

“I really believe that poetry can save through its short form, through its dazzlingness, through the way it gives rise to echoes in images, in sounds, in smells. It connects us, it screams our humanity. I think that it is a breeding ground of resistance on which it is good to rely.”

Marie Pavlenko

at franceinfo

The entire interview with Marie Pvalenko can be listened to at the top of this page Books and youth.