Ornationsons: with “Honorine la câdite”, Cathy James in the face of discrimination

Cathy, is this novel already your third work published?

Yes. Meanwhile, I was happy to publish Red blood hillawarded in 2019, and Blood moontwo novels which evoke the arrival in France of Italians in the sixties. Nevertheless, I really like writing books related to the past. Moreover, these two works mix the great story and that of my family.

Honorine la câdite deals with a little -known historical subject …

Indeed. Furthermore, this novel is inspired by the history of “cagots”, a kind of caste which could make one think of the untouchable Indians and which were victims of terrible discrimination, mainly in the southwest of France, between the 13th and ornationsons: “honorine la câdite”, cathy the 20th century. I came across their story by looking at a television program and I was first surprised and then upset. Very few testimonies evoke this discriminated social group. I relied, for my story, on the book The cagots, the story of a segregationfrom Benoît Cursent published in 2018. I learned about them that because of the fear they inspired, they underwent incredible prohibitions. They had to live separate from the population. had to wear a distinctive red sign or a leg of goose on their clothes, had only access to very few trades because they should not be put in contact with food and, obviously, in addition to separate access to the church and baptisms only possible at night, they were forced to marry each other, which led to consanguinity problems. Sent at the front the first in 14-18. they ended up undergoing less discrimination when they returned ornationsons: “honorine la câdite”, cathy from the war, when we needed them to rebuild the country and they are now melted in the population. This forgotten story of the cagots. which alas, alas, recalls other situations of discrimination closer to us really fascinated me and I chose to make it the major subject of my last work.

Precisely, present us “Honorine la câdite”.

The novel takes place in parallel over two periods. 1889 and 2020, and has as a heroine Honorine, a healer who, at the end of the 19th century will rebel against all the prohibitions with which the Cagots and Caroline, a young woman who, after a painful mourning, decides to revive her childhood house in Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgorry are. But his arrival in this Basque village will not go as planned. I leave the readers to discover more about this book that I will have the chance to present the. September 30precisely in Saint-Étienne-de-Baïgory during ornationsons: “honorine la câdite”, cathy a conference given as part of the local festival. Finally. I am currently finalizing my next book, still of historical inspiration, The Knight of Sauveterre which will evoke the defensive castle of Gruissan built in the 14th century.