Franck Bouysse signs his most intimate novel

The Book Club de We cult/“Between all”. Nevertheless, In “Between all”his new novel. However, Franck Bouysse Traces, with a delicate modesty, the portrait of a simple woman born in 1912 on an isolated farm: that of her grandmother. Similarly, A life of work, love and resilience. Similarly, An intimate and universal fresco.

“Between all” by Franck Bouysse: his most personal, most stripped and one of the most touching novel

“We are able to map the human genome, to identify the anomalies, but we are unable to franck bouysse signs his most assess what part of the experience of our ancestors really permeates us, this background noise in our cells which lodges like a ghost. Consequently, »»

Starting from this observation. However, Franck Bouysse Attempted, by plunging into memories and intimate stories, to tell the life of his grandmother, who left for a night in February, one day before her eighty-eighth anniversary, on a hospital bed, forty kilometers from the Vieilles Granges farm where she had always lived. In addition, “She feared becoming a weight … Consequently, She wanted nothing more than to finish discreetly, as she had lived. Consequently, »»

It is on this disappearance without a crash. Moreover, in the very discretion of the existence it has led, that “opens” Between all“. Nevertheless, Both a tribute and reconstruction, this chronicle of an anonymous life unrolls a whole century.

His son undertakes to give him voice, from fragments, smells, franck bouysse signs his most gestures, pronounced words or tus. Meanwhile, “Why not tell your story. For example, a story, in my own way, even if I only know scraps, even if I will lie sometimes. Consequently, »» This assumed approach reveals all the humility of the project: “I will light the shadows with what I believe. Consequently, me, and none other than me. In addition, My own memory worked his and that of those who knew her. Furthermore, »»

There lies the romantic power of the book: in this transmission gesture. Furthermore, this “I” which is over of a collective memory, of all these Maries whose names have “Lost on the day of their wedding ».

Marie is a woman of few words but of great presence. Similarly, She embodies these women who hid their suffering behind a smile “Offered to everyone. In addition, without distinction, to the familiar as to the visitor”. franck bouysse signs his most Similarly, A life of work, to the rhythm of seasons, wars, children. For example, She is one of which “Luck rarely pushed the door”but who knew “Moving the remains of happiness hanging on. Therefore, their memories”.

This portrait of infinite tenderness says the childhood of Mary through a rich sensuality. The mother’s memory is embodied in an odor. a scent of roasted straw mixed with that of sweat, carried on the back of her mother Anna as “A small Siamese being babbling, encrusted with the spine of an adult body”.

Among the striking scenes. that of marriage to Clément, in October 1930, upset by its simplicity: “They made love for the first time in the bride’s bed and fell asleep in each other. »»

Nothing grandiloquent. just the emotion of a shared moment, the birth of a couple whose love, without emphasis, will franck bouysse signs his most become a force of resistance to everyday life. Clément. for Marie, is “A rainbow revealing unsuspected treasures”a man capable of teaching him “Decipher the world around him, to make the most beautiful banal of the enchantments”.

This simple happiness. made of shared gestures and dreams, was crawl in the little: “They were aware of not being well rich in money, but otherwise precious. »» But fate feels them. The death of Clément, in 1947, marked the end of a world. “What had died tonight … It was a fire that would never be transmitted. »» And yet, it is this fire that Bouysse tries to revive.

The novel also accurately portrays the trauma of the Great War through the figure of Louis, the father of Mary. Income from the front. he “Keep the words inside, for fear that he escapes terrible from whom he wanted to preserve his family. The franck bouysse signs his most war was in him, the scenes of massacres were in him, would never come out of it “. These men “Had certainly found the release of hell, but the demons had followed their traces.”

Bouysse’s style is retained here, more carnal. Under the portrait of this discreet woman. a whole twentieth century rural is emerging: the Great War, the Spanish flu, galloping modernity. But far from making it a historical chronicle. Bouysse especially questions what the transmission means, what remains of us when everything seems swept.

This is why the novel is crossed by silences and doubts. But it is these uncertainties that make the truth of the text. A sensitive, subjective, vibrant truth. “A flickering flame is better than no flame at all”.

“Between all” continues this sensitive excavation work of the past started in its previous novels such as Born of no woman (2019. booksellers), or Wind franck bouysse signs his most drinkers (2020, Jean-Giono Prize), but adopts a more intimate, almost testamentary form. A deeply human story, woven with memory, silences and gestures.

It is undoubtedly his most personal, the most stripped and one of the most touching novel. A way of writing: “You are no longer there, but I guess you in everything I have been. »»

Henri-Charles Dhalem

• Find this article as well as all the literary chronicles of Henri-Charles Dahlem on the site Books

Franck bouysse signs his most

About the author

Franck Bouysse is born In 1965 in Brive-la-Gaillarde. He shared his childhood between an apartment in the agricultural high school where his father teaches. the family farm held by his grandparents. He spends his evenings and weekends there, is passionate about earthworking, animal breeding, learns to fish, to poach …

His vocation for writing will be born from a flu, while he is only adolescent. His mother. teacher, offers him three pounds to occupy him while he must keep the bed: Iliad and Odyssey, Treasure Island et Captain Grant’s children. He comes out of his readings with a goal: to tell stories too. After studying biology, he moved to Limoges to teach.

During his hobbies. he writes news, always reads eagerly and discovers American literature, notably with William Faulkner whose prose feeds his own reflections on language and style. Young father. he franck bouysse signs his most embarked on the writing of his first books: he writes for his son the adventure novels he would like to offer him later, inspired by the authors who marked his childhood: Stevenson, Charles Dickens, Conan Doyle, Melville … His writing work continues without professional ambition. The chance of the meetings leads him to publish some texts in regional publishing houses whose distribution remains confidential.

In 2013, he found a house in Corrèze, a few kilometers from his childhood. The property is dilapidated, but it is the immediate favorite. He buys the house that he spent more than a year to restore alone. While he is lost in this sorry hamlet. in the heart of this still wild territory, a romantic project of magnitude takes shape in his mind. A book is born and, pushed by a friend, Franck Bouysse undertakes to find an editor.

Make up the sky appeared in franck bouysse signs his most 2014 at the Manufacture of Books and, carried by the booksellers, was a great success. The fame of this novel will grow: literary prizes accumulate. criticism is interested in the author, a film adaptation project is launched. This book is a turning point. In total, nearly 100,000 copies will be sold. Will follow Plateau. Then ClayPrice of readers of the Brive Book Fair), Born of no woman (La Manufacture de Books, 2019; Prix des Libraires, Prix Babelio, Grand Prix of Lectors of Elle…), Wind drinkers (Albin Michel, 2020; Giono Prize) and Window on Earth (Phébus, 2021). In 2022, with Summer burning in Saint-Allairehe wrote his first original comic book script for the designer Daniel Casanave. (Source: editions La Manufacture de Books/ Albin Michel)