There is a je-ne-sais-quoi that hooks us and seduces us in the pen of Franck Bouysse, and which pushes us to continue reading each time we would dare to think of giving it up.
Posted yesterday at 7:00 p.m.
It’s because not much happens in the daily life of this dreary and gray village in the French countryside, where a writer lacking in inspiration settles in the hope of finding his way back to writing. Despite everything, we are very quickly plunged into a state of slight tension – bordering on suspense. Anxiety mounts as unease sets in, after a series of strange events in the old farmhouse he bought: footprints in the snow, unidentifiable noises, the feeling of being watched, items that appear to have been moved, thinly veiled warnings from locals…
We advance at a very slow pace while in parallel with the installation of the writer, we learn more about this man who lives recluse in the neighboring farm, since the death of his mother. The author approaches here with great poetry the old superstitions and the tenacious distrust which still inhabit the countryside. And it is undoubtedly for this reason that the novel deserves the detour, if only to contemplate the beauty of its writing.
The populated man
Frank Bouysse
Albin Michael
320 pages