After two collections of poetry (The future departedself-published, 2018; Inseparable distances, Écrits des Forges, 2022), Mélanie Noël signs a more than promising first novel in which she deals with romantic relationships with originality, that is to say by drawing parallels with the hazardous way of life of turtles. “The turtles that live in my head represent something bigger than you. They embody all my stories that didn’t go to the sea.” This “you” is the man the narrator would have liked to fall in love with after being scalded by the Other and before meeting the one who will become her husband and the father of her children. Between their sporadic exchanges of text messages, the narrator, who shows some similarities with the author, engages in an exercise of introspection in the form of a monologue addressed to the man, who has remained close to her despite the distance and the years. , as well as to herself, and from which she draws a conclusion of disarming simplicity and enveloping beauty.
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