Toulouse: The fantasized Japan of Audeguy
In Toulouse, this Saturday, March 19, Stéphane Audeguy will present his latest novel “Dejima” at the Ombres Blanches bookstore. a masterful story set in 20th century Japan.
Born in 1964, Stéphane Audeguy has published since his first novel, “La Théorie desclouds”, translated into more than twenty languages, in 2005, several novels with Gallimard and Le Seuil. It is with the latter that he publishes “Dejima”, which he will present this Saturday at the Ombres Blanches bookstore. Dejima, which gives its title to the novel, is a once man-made island and Dutch trading post. This port area, built in the 16th century by the Japanese in Nagasaki Bay, is now a preserved historic district.
Mabel is the name of the heroine of this novel. This young American arrived with her lawyer husband in 1902 in Kyoto. She will leave there widowed for Tokyo in 1946, and we will follow under the superb pen of Stéphane Audeguy, who teaches the history of cinema and the arts in Hauts-de-Seine, a large part of the history of Japan, from the major stages of economic development at the turn of the 19th and 20th centuries to the post-modern era, including the American occupation from 1945 to 1952. In this complex and confusing country, Mabel one day had a disturbing and haunting vision of a wandering kid, accompanied by her dog. From then on, Mabel will never stop finding the little girl…
The big story – the fascinating one of Japan – and the little one, the one on the verge of the fantastic, of Mabel, we are talking about free women, who metamorphose, sometimes becoming a lark, firefly or vixen, always desirable. A masterful story, a shiver of happiness on every page.
yves gabay
Meeting with Stéphane Audeguy, Saturday March 19 from 5 p.m. to 6.30 p.m. in the conference area of the Ombres Blanches bookstore (3, rue Mirepoix). Last book published: “Déjima” (Seuil, 288 pages, €18.50)