“The impossible return” of Amélie Nothomb in Japan

The Belgian writer has returned home, to the land of her childhood and her loves, in spite of herself. She has made a funny and caustic travel diary of her stay.

Amélie Nothomb lives in several territories. The sedentary woman, who settled in Paris to her own surprise, sees no reason to travel as she loves the French capital. So why go elsewhere?It’s like declaring that you live in Eden and want to visit Hell.” However, the Belgian author agrees to return to Japan to accompany her photographer friend Pep Beni. Return therefore “at her place”, in Japan, a country that fascinates and tortures her. A country that made Amélie Nothomb. The last time she went there was in 2012 on the occasion of a documentary on her relationship with Japan. And the Parisian decreed, armed with her panic fear: “Any departure is an aberration. I think I know that well. My diplomat parents moved constantly, taking their offspring more traumatized each time.” Hence a certain aversion to the idea of ​​even the slightest departure.

The impossible return (Albin Michel) is a proof of love, of loves. Singular, plural. For this journey, she must serve as a guide for her friend. “It is my favorite country in the world, my sacred land. The mere mention of its name is enough to put me into a trance. Such love gives me no special skills and takes away any right to make mistakes.” Memories flood back, invited by nostalgia to occupy the present. This journey is an eternal back and forth, past-present. Everything is an opportunity to revive memory. Each street, temple, food or behavior arouses in her overflowing emotions that plunge her into a great melancholy marked by sensitivity.

In this story, Amélie Nothomb also travels through her own memory. The reminiscence seizes the Belgian author, she who devotes an unconditional love to Japan and its language.Japanese is my ghost language. Until I was five, I spoke it fluently. Then I left the country and forgot the language.” Temporarily, until she finds her again later during her various stays. Amélie Nothomb remembers funny and tasty situations like the time when, employed in a Japanese company, her hierarchy, dissatisfied with her, gave her a most strange order: ““Forget Japanese.”

Amélie Nothomb’s new novel is an autobiographical diary of a writer with a sensitive skin, who is sometimes overwhelmed by her emotions for the most banal reasons, such as when she loses a transport ticket that turns into a tragedy. All these moments reveal the author’s sincerity. What can we remember from this journey? The impossible return is a book imbued with nostalgia for a past that is still present, but also a generous, funny story full of love for the country of his childhood.

(The Impossible Return, Amélie Nothomb, Albin Michel, 18.90 euros)