Pierric Bailly turns to the figure of the monster in his eighth novel
In "Rouges-Truites," the Jura-based writer moves into the territory of the dark thriller while keeping his familiar landscapes and voice.
Pierric Bailly's eighth novel, "Rouges-Truites," both continues and departs from his earlier work, according to Le Temps. The paper notes that the book keeps the author's signature preoccupations — a meticulous attention to family and friendship, and characters followed over the long term — along with a narrator whose familiar, oral voice has become a Bailly trademark, the kind of storyteller readers feel they would like to have as a companion.
The French Jura, a setting dear to Bailly since novels such as "L'homme des bois" and "La foudre," appears once more, described by Le Temps as more magnetic and ambivalent than ever, to the point of functioning as a character in its own right.
What is new, according to the review, is the appearance of the monster as a figure in Bailly's fiction for the first time. After moving between the intimate coming-of-age story and the adventure novel in previous books, "Rouges-Truites" shifts into what Le Temps calls a thriller maléfique — a menacing thriller. The paper writes that the novelist, known for his empathy and respectful attentiveness to his characters, turns in this book to darker, colder pages examining the narcissistic, violent and degrading hold exercised by a disturbed mind.
Bailly is scheduled to appear at the Livre sur les quais festival in Morges, Le Temps reports.
Sources
This article was written from these reports.
