THE WOMAN AND THE falcon
Isabelle Sorente
(JC Lattès, 2021, 396 pages)
*** RECIPIENT OF THE ALBERTINE TRANSLATION PRIZE 2022***
*** RIGHTS SOLD TO THE NETHERLANDS ***
***TRANSLATION SAMPLE AVAILABLE HERE***
In this gripping fiction, Isabelle Sorente tackles a lesser-known WWII-related topic: the Malgré-nous, eastern French soldiers forcibly enlisted in the German army. After the unexpected occurs, Elisabeth and her daughter put their life on standby and head to Thomas’, a war veteran. As the story goes, the mysteries surrounding the family are unraveled.
Vina is a fourteen-year-old gifted girl who bafflingly got expelled from school after she fiercely threatened a classmate, Gaspard, with a box cutter. She and her single mother Elisabeth – an overloaded businesswoman who runs a film company – leave Paris. They go and hide away in Alsace at Thomas', Elisabeth's grand-uncle whom she hasn't met in years.
Thomas is an unfathomable elderly and secluded man. Everyday, he goes for a walk in the forest to feed a hawk with raw meat. He is charismatic: besides being very tall, he is insightful and sharp-witted. Mona, his caretaker, is secretly in love with him and Thomas ends up admitting that he feels the same about her.
The secret of Vina's birth is unveiled after she explains why she assaulted Gaspard. She was brought into the world by an Indian surrogate mother, Anju. After it is revealed that Anju passed, Elisabeth is unexpectedly moved and hastily leaves the house to meet Anju's family in London.
Vina stays with Thomas and Mona. Against all odds and despite their age gap, Thomas and Vina start bonding. As Vina struggles with her feelings for Gaspard and her best friend Juliette, Thomas teaches her his secret meditation method that saved his life several times in the past during the war. He shuts his eyes and imagines himself flying above the Earth, as a hawk, to escape reality. As he had to survive within the German army, an untamed hawk singled him out and landed on his shoulder. He started watching the world from the air afterwards. When he and his brother Alexandre were imprisoned in Tambov, a Russian prisoners-of-war camp, he would use that technique to survive burying dead-prisoner corpses, to make it through the freezing cold and the starvation.
Eventually, the three of them forged an unbreakable bond, and Vina and Elisabeth make the promise to come back for the summer break.
The Woman and the Bird is a riveting intergenerational novel that grabs you from the very first page. This is yet Sorente’s most mature work, and a must-read.
Isabelle Sorente is a renowned author and radio commentator who has published numerous books and plays including 180 jours (JC Lattès, 2013), La Faille (JC Lattès, 2015) and more recently Le complexe de la sorcière (JC Lattès, 2020)