“Les Égarés” by the American Ayana Mathis, between epic and lyricism [1/2]

Ayana Mathis is the rising star of African-American letters. Mathis became known by publishing his first novel in 2012 The Twelve Tribes of Hattie.

The Twelve Tribes is an epic tale of the migration of African-Americans, which began in the 1920s, with six million men and women fleeing the South where lois Jim Crow governed daily life. This novel, which combines history, mythology and contemporary battles against racism and poverty, has enjoyed immense success, as evidenced by its selection in 2012 in the book club of Oprah Winfrey, the priestess of popular literature in UNITED STATES. According to the author, the success of this first novel was intoxicating for her, but also debilitating.

Family saga and historical account

The Lost is the title of Ayana Mathis’ second novel, which has just been published in French translation this fall. Both a family saga and a historical story, this new novel by Mathis is anchored in the history of the black community in the United States in the 20th century. “ It took me ten years to write this novel where history and fiction go hand in handconfides the author on RFI. I spent a lot of time imagining the characters and their relationships with History at work. »

The plot of Lost is built around three protagonists belonging to the same family, against the backdrop of the turbulent history of African-American communities at odds with power and the white majority. Dutchess, the grandmother, is determined by her fights against white supremacists in Bonaparte, in the heart of Alabama, where she fights to safeguard the specificity of her historic incorporated city, founded in 1868, by freed slaves. Ava, his daughter, evolves among the radical activists of the 1980s and shares the life of the leader of a black anarco-ecologist movement which leads her down the path of marginalization and self-destruction. Third and main protagonist of the novel, Toussaint is thirteen years old, separated from his parents and engaged in his own quest. He embodies the promise of tomorrow, free from the ghosts of the past.

The novel opens with the adolescent’s march towards his own destiny. “ Toussaint Wright arrived on Ephraim Avenue with a backpack on his shoulder and a bloody gash on his cheek. He was thirteen years old. Two years earlier, a fire had ravaged the 248 Ephraim Avenue where he lived. The fire had destroyed almost everything he loved. Since then, Toussaint had passed through a good number of homes – accommodation centers, host families, the rectory of a woman pastor he knew – but he always ended up running away. He stood for a long time on Ephraim Avenue, watching the yellowed leaves fall from the oak tree. »

This passage taken from the prologue sets the tone of this novel, between solemnity and fragility, between the headlong rush of a kid with no future and the symbolism of a name which is reminiscent of Toussaint Louverturethe Haitian general who challenged Napoleon’s formidable army. It is undoubtedly not accidental that the novel opens with the name of this revolutionary from Haiti, a country where the black slave stood up for the first time, as Aimé Césaire wrote.

Outstanding storyteller

Resolutely stuck in History, The Lost are also striking with its colorful and angry characters, determined by their passions and their contradictions. A graduate of the University of Iowa writing workshop, Ayana Mathis is an outstanding storyteller, who in two novels has managed to rise to the level of the greatest. She is considered the heir of Toni Morrison, but her style, which combines lyricism and analysis, is not devoid of originality and inventiveness.

The Lostby Ayana Mathis. Translated from English by François Happe. Editions Gallmeister, 528 pages, 25.90 euros.