“Diogenes’ Daughter”, wanderer, princess and witch – Libération

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Author of novels like Scalp (at the Threshold) or Storm Yonna (In8), Cyril Herry continues to love winding paths, deep forests, cabins hidden in the trees. His new heroine, the Daughter of Diogenes, is inspired by a true story, that of the “woman of the woods” in the Cévennes. She was a loner who lived for more than ten years in the mountains, a shadow away from society, stealing here and there something to eat, a blanket or a warm sweater, and more or less tolerated by local residents. But in his novel, the writer goes well beyond the anecdote and the news item: he invites us to accompany this unknown woman in her escapes, to lurk with her near a plowed field where a vixen remains the lookout. In the distance, the light of a dining room shines in the night. The girl is cheeky, playful even, when she slips into the kitchen, like a ghost, and steals wine, a pâté and a pretty knife that will come in handy. Sometimes the risk is greater, the necessity greater. She is cold, feels feverish, fears being surprised in her sleep by the occupants of the empty house where she has lived for a few days.

Cyril Herry does not try to make her sympathetic, suggests that in the surrounding villages, people are starting to get annoyed by her misdeeds. The writer sets out to describe the daily life of a wanderer who has turned away from the world, its noises, its obligations. He describes her actions, the music she listens to at random, the books she steals from a library, the glass of wine that makes her want to dance. It makes her childish and unconscious, like a fairy tale heroine between princess and witch. Diogenes' Daughter is a short, poetic and modest text, refusing adjectives and emotionality to leave us a place at her side without making the slightest judgment.

The Daughter of Diogenes, Cyril Herry, In8 editions, Polaroid collection, 80 pp, €8.90.