When I learned that Cédric Sapin-Defour was visiting Montreal this week, his first visit to Quebec, I absolutely wanted to meet him, even if his unforgettable story, Its smell after the rainwas published over a year ago.
I wanted to know the man who had written the book that made me cry the most in 2023. Just by rereading the many passages I had underlined, I bawled again and arrived at the meeting with red eyes. Seeing my copy dog-eared all over, not to mention ruined, he smiled. “I like it when a book has lived experience like that. »
Its smell after the rain, which tells of the author’s love for his dog Ubac, a wonderful Bernese mountain dog, was one of the big surprises in the publishing world last year. Its success has not waned, since it has now reached 400,000 copies sold, in addition to having won prizes, including the one called the “Goncourt of animals”, awarded by the 30 million friends Foundation.
I have rarely read such a heartfelt (and so well written) tribute to the unique relationship between human beings and their dogs, to the immense grief that the animal leaves behind after its death, however predictable and inevitable.
Sometimes I laughed between my tears, because Cédric Sapin-Defour allows himself to go very far in his love, certainly too much for those who don’t like dogs, but I agreed with everything he said.
For example this extract, when the author speaks of Ubac who is no longer there: “This is how it scours, absence, far from lyrical dreams about love and death but a crust of Gruyère by hand, devastated at not knowing what to do with it. Do you know, from moment to moment, this place that you took in each of my days? Being together happily took up all my time, what am I going to do with this confiscated mass? We knew it, it was written, to infinitely contaminate our lives, the abyss would be bottomless, but what should we do, hold us back? »
Anyone who has experienced the terrible void after losing a beloved dog will recognize themselves in this extract – I’ve been through it twice, which in no way prepares me for the next one with Angie, the apple of my eye. And yet, despite the certain pain on the horizon, we start again, we adopt a dog again knowing that it is a doomed love, and that is why we savor every minute of it.
“The company of a dog is the very embodiment of joy and perpetual wonder,” notes Cédric Sapin-Defour. How many times have I heard since this book came out, from readers: “It’s over, I won’t get any more dogs”? I tell them yes because I’m polite, but most of the time we dive back in. I find it a very beautiful moral of existence, because from what I understood, we are going to die too. »
I was shocked one day to learn in a news report that a pet is often the last line of defense for people who have suicidal thoughts. What prevents them from taking action is the idea of abandoning this cat, this dog who loves them unconditionally.
PHOTO PATRICK SANFAÇON, THE PRESS
The author Cédric Sapin-Defour
There are two ways of approaching the certainty of finitude. Either we can be overwhelmed and absolutely sad, or on the contrary we grab hold of everything that passes. Living with a dog stimulates us in this last direction, because we know that it is short.
Cédric Sapin-Defour
“Undeniably, we signed up for a love story for which we know the expiration date,” believes Cédric Sapin-Defour, “and it is precisely for this reason that I have immense admiration for the audacity that people have to enter into a relationship with an animal, where we know that the outcome will be painful, and that we will find ourselves alone. I find this to be a completely admirable commitment. »
Free like a happy dog
Cédric Sapin-Defour speaks in a soft voice, has light gray eyes, and tattoos all over his arms. The 49-year-old was raised by parents who taught him the importance of being master of his time – “it’s the most beautiful Rolex, free time,” according to him.
He was influenced in his childhood by the books of Jack London, and always lived modestly, near the mountains and forests, having published some confidential books on the subject, such as Climbing mountains is a matter of style. He and his partner sold everything to live life in a van, in which there is a poster that reads in Italian: “What day is it?” » “It’s a good sign not to know if it’s Sunday or Monday,” he believes.
A traveling existence that few dare choose, but which must be extraordinary for a dog. All of Cédric Sapin-Defour’s dogs have lived in the great outdoors and made him discover that they are much better than humans at understanding their environment.
“I thought I was an expert in reading the wind, the snow, the weather, but in fact, my dogs taught me that I was totally stupid in this nature. Ubac is much more expert than me in understanding the environment intelligibly. » Besides, in the thousands of nights with Ubac, there were only two where he did not want to sleep under a roof, and both times it was because he had sniffed a tremor. earth.
We feel in Cédric Sapin-Defour an immense respect for the dignity of an animal. He agrees with me when I tell him that dogs educate us more than we educate them. This is also why he wanted to give recognition to animal mourning, which is often despised in society.
You know, when someone discovers you in a terrible state, because you have just had your old dog euthanized, and they say to you: “Phew, I thought it was serious. » He protests against the relativization of this loss in a kind of twisted hierarchy of feelings, typical of human imbecility.
“Often, we are told, when we cry for a dog, that we have to look at what is happening in the world. But what does this sentence do? I don’t understand, it has no connection. It is not because we offer our love to another living being that we close ourselves off, that we become deaf and blind to what is happening in the world. On the contrary. If human beings were capable at a moment of losing interest in themselves and directing their love towards a different being, of a different origin, of a different language, the acceptance of otherness would still be a little superior. Since the beginning of our conversation, we have only been talking about very high feelings. »
Often, what makes literature is when it gives a voice to the voiceless, and there are no more voiceless people than animals, but also those who love them. We are embarrassed to say that the death of an animal is sometimes as painful as that of a human being. The mourning of an animal is only just beginning to be understood in our society, and Cédric Sapin-Defour’s book loosens tongues. Most of his readers tell him: “What you are telling is my story. »
Of course, he is happy with his success, for having written a very personal book with the sole intention of taking one last ride with Ubac, which ultimately touches on the universal. Did this book change his life? Yes and no. He has not changed his habits and lives as before, but the sales of Its smell after the rain almost confirm that he is on the right road, as if Ubac was telling him: continue, even without me.
But more than anything, this success gives him hope in humanity. “Regardless of the bank account, the success, my photo in the newspapers, and that’s nice, I am above all reassured to live in a world where a simple love story between two living beings can be supported like that. I tell myself that this world is not completely rotten and disinterested in things of the heart, if a book like this finds its audience. It fills my life with joy. »
Cédric Sapin-Defour will participate this Saturday from 2 p.m. to 3:30 p.m. in a talk and a signing session at the Monet bookstore, at 2752, rue de Salaberry (Galeries Normandie).
Its smell after the rain
Stock Editions
286 pages