EN REGLE AVEC LA NUIT

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The narrator is a seventy year-old woman. She is married to a major government figure, and lives in the most peaceful part of the "region". Her nights are ravaged by insomnia.

For many years, a latent war has been dividing and exhausting the population. Everyone lives in fear. The designated enemy are "religious activists" who set bombs. A few months ago, a young woman who worked in the "peace organisation" was killed when her car was blown up. The narrator knew her well: she was profoundly moved by her anger, her commitment and her empathy for others.

Unable to forget the younger woman, she decides to visit her killer in prison. She succeeds in winning his trust and get him to speak. What may have sparked it all, he admits to her, is that his younger brother died in an uprising. Poverty too, but mostly the lack of any compensation. And the helping hand offered by the religious activists.

Next, the narrator meets a writer who fascinates her, and other characters who affected the dead woman's life. During her travels, the war becomes increasingly active. It takes her all the way to the front. Where she no longer feels fear.

The "region" and its state of pending war has no fixed sense of time and place, referring us back to our contemporary world, difficult to pin down and decipher. As it fragments and grows darker, it provides individuals with an echo of their own loneliness and fractured existence.

This book explores an understanding of other people, of war and of commitment, and is thoughtfully crafted in language that is both rhythmic and lyrical. Born in Paris in 1978, Justine Augier has lived in Jerusalem for three years. Her first novel, Son absence, was published in 2008.

Née à Paris en 1978, Justine Augier a travaillé dans l’humanitaire, notamment en Afghanistan. Elle habite à Jérusalem depuis trois ans. Elle a publié en 2008 un premier roman, Son absence