“And your sister, where is she, what does she do? / — Oh, my sister, she’s taking some fresh air. As she wanders from one place to another, far from her family, without ties, a young woman finds herself forced to give news of her older sister, who has gone to live in the forest. She then imagines a dialogue with the absent woman, for whom she invents a destiny within a band of environmental activists. First novel by Anouk Lejczyk, first published last year in France by Éditions du Panseur, Felis Silvestris (“wild cat” in Latin) recalls by its singular pen, its lyrical breath and its bewitching sensuality the universes of Gabrielle Filteau-Chiba (WaterfowlXYX, 2019) and Audrée Wilhelmy (body of beasts, Leméac, 2017). Also evoking the thought, work and life of Henry David Thoreau, this hypnotic, sometimes disconcerting short novel celebrates the strength of family ties as much as that of the relationship between humans and nature, without forgetting to bring a lucid and sharp critical eye.
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