“A woman has disappeared” by Anne-Sophie Stefanini, dizziness in Yaoundé – Libération

The novelist takes a disturbing dive into the dark years of Cameroon.

A woman has disappeared : the title is enough to arouse curiosity. The sequel does not disappoint. Yaoundé captivates Constance from her first moments in the Cameroonian city. Jean-Martial, ten years her senior, guides her like “a divinity from Yaoundé, an oracle”. A mystery haunts him: one of his professors at the university disappeared in 1991. Was she kidnapped for her support of students revolting against the government? Anne-Sophie Stefanini was already passionate about a missing person in This unknown (Gallimard, 2020), between Paris and Cameroon. This captivating fifth novel reads like a mirror, combining historical investigation and self-quest.

The story has the air ofHiroshima mon amourthe film by Alain Resnais released in 1959. A young woman falls in love, loses her lover and looks for him in everyone she will know next. This love is the reflection of a historical memory that we are trying to erase. Past and present overlap and merge. At 17, Constance fell in love with Jean-Martial instantly and without concession. He takes her dancing and the presence of the Frenchwoman reminds him of the ghost of a woman he once knew: “You remind me of her: something in your walk, the way you hold yourself. […] This woman has disappeared.” Constance spends several summers in Yaoundé, but Jean-Martial becomes more and more distant, until he evaporates