In her third novel, Emma Hooper (Etta and Otto (and Russell and James)), Stopovers, 2015; Songs from the seaAlto, 2018) transports us to IIe century AD, on the borders of the Roman Empire, a time when Christians were thrown to the lions. “Portugal, around 180 CE, probably”, as Marina, the first of nine twin sisters to speak in Let’s not be afraid of the skyan epic tale where emotion, sensuality and violence compete for first place.
Marina will also be the last to be heard in this vast polyphonic fresco where the Alberta novelist goes back to the origins of Quiteria, virgin and martyr of the Visigoth nobility, whom an Iberian legend gave birth to in Galicia, in order to weave a powerful reflection on the sorority, on the feminine condition and on the rejection of conventions, which concludes in a way that is as breathless as it is overwhelming.
At their mother’s request, Cyllia, a Christian slave, goes to the river to drown Quiteria and her eight twin daughters, two of whom are stillborn. Unable to resolve it, Cyllia places the seven babies in various families. “I don’t blame her. Neither me nor us. She had never wanted to be a mother. She didn’t even want to get married. Not that the choice existed in these matters. Not that we left him the choice, ”recalls the wise Marina.
A few years later, the plague carried off two other little girls. Then Vittoria is sent to Carthage to become the slave of Perpetua, who renames her Felicitas (as in Passion of Perpetua and Felicity). Of the nine sisters, only Quiteria, Marina, Liberata, disfigured by the plague, and Basilissa, called Basil, remain.
“My sisters, in their white tunics, with their elaborate hairstyles, their gold pendants that reflected their faces reddened by food, candlelight, wine and milk, my sisters were happy. So I should have been happy too. So I didn’t add anything, I just closed my eyes, ”says the rebellious Quiteria.
Reunited with their father, with whom they enjoy luxury and idleness, the young girls, led by Quiteria, refuse to submit to the authority of this general who has always gone to war against the barbarians. They then flee thanks to the complicity of the soldier Cyllius, son of Cyllia and object of desire of two of them.
A perilous destiny tinged with the marvelous ensues, evoking a relay race where each of the sisters takes up the story according to her point of view, her sensitivity, her beliefs. And this, in a language of dazzling beauty whose singular breath, carnal poetry and bewitching musicality are rendered by the almost impeccable translation of Dominique Fortier (apart from this “even even” and this “same as” which make one tick …).
With her heroines larger than life, prisoners of an era condemning them to be only “daughters of”, “wives of” and “mothers of”, Let’s not be afraid of the sky proves, beyond its mystical dimension, a hymn to all those women who free themselves from patriarchy at the risk of their lives.