“The Priest and the Poacher”, a gothic tale in the snow and the wind – Libération

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From the first sentence of the novel, the violence is there, imposed: “It was raining steel rivets”writes the Englishman Benjamin Myers. At first light, the Girl leaves the house, a baby in her arms, swaddled in an old cloth. The infant is not hers but it is a matter of saving him from a father without tenderness and an exhausted and indifferent mother. For the Girl, “The child was a rare and delicate egg that fell from the wrong nest”. In pursuit, a frightening man, the Priest, who abused her and will not let her go. Alone, she is sometimes helped by a stranger who hands her a piece of bread, a little milk, never any affection. And ahead, very far away, is the hope of an Eden, a simple city in which to finally disappear or better yet, an island in the middle of the ocean. Behind, the Priest and his sidekick, the Poacher, advance inexorably.

This race for survival is written with a scalpel, each word seems like pain, each sentence is captivating and the characters are not even named, like fleeting shadows. Set near the lakes, in the north of England, the novel focuses on a disturbing nature, of wild beauty, like the heroine, mute, terrified but courageous because she has no choice. It breathes the Gothic tale, the biblical parable, the writing is powerful but so is the emotion. Because Benjamin Myers, who is also the author of Degradation (Seuil, 2018) and Offshore (Seuil, 2022), does not just scare the reader, he worries and takes his time to establish his terrible, timeless universe. Sometimes the novelist grants a lull, when the baby is full and it is warm by a fire, but for the most part the road is cruel, cold and the march endless in the snow and wind. Reading this formidable novel is poisonous and fascinating, leaving us feeling weightless. No doubt thanks to the writing (and the very beautiful translation by Clément Baude) but also to the wait for a refuge. The Priest and the Poacher is a formidable book.

The Priest and the PoacherBenjamin Myers, translated from English by Clément Baude, Seuil, 288 pp, €23.