“On all the pages read/On all the blank pages/Stone blood paper or ashes/I write your name. » In 1942, Paul Éluard published “Liberté”, one of the best-known poems in the French language. Recently republished by Éditions de Minuit, this short and poignant text is a perfect introduction to our third selection. Through their choices, the jurors talk about books that call for and celebrate this freedom. In the fiction category, the first novel by Briton of Caribbean origin Eleanor Shearer looks back on the slow death of the slave system at the start of the 20th century. Juliette Rousseau, for her part, finds the freedom to say who she is through a first-person story, examining, in poetic prose, her “hillbilly” nature. Finally, on the thriller side, Hippolyte Leuridan-Dusser explores, in an underworld that has captivated our readers, the freedom to exist differently.
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Fiction
What defines slavery and when does it really end? When we are freed? When do we escape? Dies? Rachel is in the service of a master in Barbados. In 1934, slavery was abolished, but what changed? She only knew this life, her heart stopped beating with each child that life took from her, stillborn, sick, sold. She “owes” her boss six more years before she’s free for good, but can’t wait any longer. To find out what happened to her children, she must escape. But slavery is still there, lurking, behind the anger of a malicious employer, in his nightmares and along his curved spine. From Barbados to Trinidad, from the field to the jungle via the city, Rachel goes looking for her little ones, one by one. A touching odyssey about motherhood and freedom. – Viviane Mulder
“Freedom is a distant island”, by Eleanor Shearer, translated from English by Carine Chichereau (Charleston, 392 p.).
Non-fiction
Juliette Rousseau explores her feelings about her native countryside and addresses the image of rurality. She also begins with an examination of the words: “hillbilly”, “redneck”, “beauf”, “ass-terreux”… In the insults, she, a woman, does not exist. She notes that we only define rural history in opposition to what dominates it: the city, the urban, modernity… She talks to us about shame, dispossession, and the difficulty of writing on this subject. We go through the seasons with her to the rhythm of nature. We realize the gradually severed link with man, and what mechanization is doing to the world. For the sake of efficiency and productivity, machines eclipse the sense of care, which is based on mutual assistance and interdependence. “I’m still learning to come back to myself,” she wrote. A powerful and resolutely lively essay. – Stéphanie Janus
“Pécuaude”, by Juliette Rousseau (Cambourakis, 127 p.).
Policeman
Reading this book allowed me to discover a new publishing house and a new pen. I read a lot of thrillers, which inevitably makes me demanding because the stories repeat themselves, the plots are similar, the plots sometimes lack originality… But that is clearly not the case in this novel. Certainly, we find a relatively classic police investigation and some somewhat stereotypical investigator characters, but one thing is certain: Hippolyte Leuridan-Dusser has a voice, a writing style. The singularity of this detective novel lies in the character of Romain, in his clan and in this Lair-Earth that they inhabit. There, the author crosses the thriller and the fable, giving an almost dreamlike dimension to a fairly dark plot. A very promising start. – Léa Guignery
“When you cross the river”, by Hippolyte Leuridan-Dusser (Éditions du Gros Caillou, 221 p.).
This month, our jurors read in the Fiction category: “Story of Domestication”, by Camila Sosa Villada (Métaillé) and “Les Égarés”, by Ayana Matthis (Gallmeister). In the Non-fiction category: “Thus the animal and us”, by Kaoutar Harchi (Actes Sud). In the Polar category: “Room 505”, by Viveca Sten (Albin Michel)
