Jean-Luc Benoziglio

Le feu au lac

«A demi français, en partie juif, à moitié suisse, pas très catholique, l'auteur a introduit ces quatre éléments dans l'ordinateur (qu'il ne possède pas) et cliqué sur sa propre mémoire, ou ce qu'il en reste.»

On a small river island in France lives a poor and lonely outsider. Little by little, a life story comes together. Raised in a catholic family in French-speaking Switzerland, the young man later goes to Paris to study music. In 1942 he looks on whike his father’s Jewish family is taken in by the police. He himself avoids deportation thanks only to his Swiss passport. Years later the flutist falls in love with a former class-mate, Edith, who had survived the concentration camp and become a viola player. Their love doesn’t last, however, and their home in the Gironde falls apart.

The islander caught between different worlds somehow manages to set everyone against him, be they Jewish or not Jewish, Swiss or French, capitalists or communist. At least this is how his mishaps are unsympathetically described by the mainlanders who cross his path. Chambermaid, garage owner, innkeeper, architect, teacher and mayor all tell their versions of the story, which takes an unabashed look at prejudice, greed, selfishness and complacency. Who is this man? What makes him tick? Is he more Jewish kippah or Swiss sennenkäppi? Ladino (Judeo-Spanish) or Ladin (the Romansh dialect spoken in the Swiss Engadin region)? Marx Brothers or shrewd farmer? And what went on in Switzerland during World War 2? Exploding with wit, wordplay and the darkest humour, this work explores existential topics such as identity and foreignness, exclusion and integration, guilt and atonement.

(Ruth Gantert, transl by Andrea Mason)

Translation of title: The Fire on the Lake

Seuil, Paris 1998

ISBN: 978-2-02-032444-X