“I happened to be afraid, on the ground, but I smile now thinking back to this period of my life when I had the impression of evolving in a fiction”, writes Perrine Leblanc in the note located as an appendix to his third novel, Northern people.
After an incursion into Soviet Russia (The white man2010), then on the shores of Gaspésie (Malabourg, 2014), Perrine Leblanc appears once again where we least expect her, in the cold and windy plains of Ireland. In 2014 and 2015, the writer crisscrossed the green Érin aboard a coach, stopping at inns to capture the stories, sitting down around a pint — of which she did not touch a drop — with journalists, intelligence officers, law enforcement officers and former activists, to better understand the conflict that gripped Northern Ireland in the second half of the 1990s.
The peace accord, signed in 1998, ended three decades of violence. However, this stability did not prevent the fear from interfering in the head of the author. “During my research, I realized how fragile peace is. Brexit has threatened gains. This border is a powder keg. »
At a table in a café on Duluth Street in Montreal, she lets her gaze drift towards the recorder on the table. “Let me be clear, I have never been afraid of the Irish. They are extremely welcoming. But I’m a woman traveling alone, and my research has caught the eye. I was interrogated at the airport, and I met people who were afraid, who are still suspicious. I have difficulty putting my finger on what I felt. »
Could this not be a consequence of his great empathy, of his ability to understand and feel a multitude of human experiences? ” May be. I hadn’t thought of that,” she exclaims.
Ireland in the skin
Perrine Leblanc’s gaze constantly lights up when she evokes the beauty of the Emerald Isle, its breathtaking frescoes, the hospitality of its inhabitants — “the coach drivers always insisted on letting me travel for free — and the comforting aroma of his soda bread soaked in stew (a recipe she offers at the very end of her novel). The novelist, it’s obvious, has Ireland in her skin.
“I have been passionate about this culture since adolescence. Both of my grandmothers are of Irish descent. The Irish participated in the construction of Quebec. They are part of our history. All of this made me want to immerse myself in this culture, to find a subject for a novel. »
Her story, she found it in the bubbling struggles of Northern Ireland, but also in the fascinating world of war journalism. “We realize, even more in light of the invasion of Ukraine, the importance of the work of these incredible journalists, who bring us information, sometimes at the risk of their lives. When I create a character, I have to want to spend five years with him. He must have something to teach me. Fiction for me is almost like the Stanislavski method in theatre. It’s slipping into someone else’s skin, and seeing the world through their eyes. »
The right words
people of the north opens with the execution of Samuel Gallagher, a writer enlisted in the Irish Republican Army. We are in 1991. In Belfast, the tension is palpable between the loyalists, faithful to the Queen of England, and the nationalists, eager for independence. In the aftermath of the assassination, François Le Bars, a French journalist, falls in love with a young documentary filmmaker from Quebec, fascinated by the new martyr. On the chessboard of war, where secrets and threats abound, he will have to choose between reaching out to her or protecting her at all costs.
Eight years later Malabourg, Perrine Leblanc returns to the top of her game, more composed, more involved, more real than ever. His pen, precise and malleable, blends into his universe, bends to the thoughts of the characters, almost making one forget the artist behind the work. The prose is raw and discreet, with a sobriety perfectly suited to its subject, into which an abundance of historical and geographical details slips with clarity.
“I couldn’t have adopted a lyrical tone, I would have felt like I was outdoing it. War is rough. The emotion, it appears on the spot. Then reason sets in. People who live in times of war talk about it with sobriety, detachment. I wanted to stay as close as possible to the subject. »
While reading people of the north in the current context, it is impossible not to feel a touch of sadness in front of the stutters of history. “You cannot compare the Ukrainian people, whom I know very little, to the Irish people. But what I see is a nation trying to exist whose integrity is threatened by a giant. England also wanted to possess ever more territories and establish its domination. I am devastated to see these men and women forced to take up arms. I am for democracy, for peace. It’s upsetting. »