“La Combe”: the saga of Sébastien Saffon continues with a second volume

Passionate about rural history, Sébastien Saffon created a successful blog eight years ago, called “Les Carnets d’Émile”, where he publishes every day the work diary kept by his grandfather, a sharecropper in the 1950s. With this blog, a whole section of agriculture from the 1950s is brought up to date: the arrival of progress with mechanization, the continuation of certain traditions, family life and the role of each person in the farm. His novels take their source from this Lauragais of yesteryear steeped in peasant traditions and ancestral know-how passed down from one generation to another with the wind of Autan.

Volume II already available

“A Castle for Pigeons” constitutes volume II of the trilogy begun with “Le Silence de la Combe”. It was published by Éditions du 38, Villefranchoise editions directed by Anita Berchenko, on November 12. The author continues his exploration of the life of the Lauragais farms and countryside during the war.

Here are some elements of the story in which readers will be able to find Suzanne, Jean, Lino, Alice and Michel… “The Second World War took Jean, a 35-year-old reservist, far from La Combe, his Lauragais farm. Suzanne, his wife , pregnant with their second child, finds herself very isolated at a time when major agricultural work is coming. Of course, Lino, her childhood sweetheart, is there to help her. And if his presence is a relief, she. also generates a lot of suffering by awakening a past that they thought was over. The year 1940 advances and rationing becomes stricter. In the hamlet of Albouy as elsewhere, the question of bread becomes heated. temporary solutions sometimes involving illegality, resourcefulness, but also mutual aid, relighting the old farm oven, waking up the mills, organizing without attracting attention, all constitute challenges. face despite the multiple dangers. The autan wind rushes through the wings of the last windmills, sweeping skies with very dark horizons.”

The Lauragais of yesteryear remembered

The thousand hills of Lauragais are the setting for this peasant history and it is with this poetic writing, between Giono and Michelet, that Sébastien brings us to life the Lauragais of yesteryear with its dramas, its secrets and its joys, a novel which celebrates the earth and life which, despite all the hazards and inconstancy of men, is reborn season after season, generation after generation, and constantly enchants and re-enchants our lives. An author to absolutely follow. P

To present this new book to his readers but also all his works, Sébastien Saffon will be present at the Avignonet Book Fair on Sunday, November 24 and at the Beffroi bookstore in Revel on Saturday, December 7, as well as at the Avignonet Book Fair. Saint-Papoul on Sunday December 8. You can also discover Sébastien’s fantastic work on dedicated sites: his author site www.sebastiensaffon.com and of course the starting point for all his work as a novelist the blog www.lescarnetsdemile.fr.