Driven by sensitive and poetic writing, Anne de Kinkelin's new novel, 12 bis, avenue du Maréchal-Joffre promises to be the book of the summer. Takeoff for this initiation trip planned for June 3!
“We can therefore travel not to flee, which is impossible, but to find ourselves."This sentence by the writer Jean Grenier could be the maxim that guides Léa, the young heroine of Anne de Kinkelin's new novel. Three years after a first remarkable work, the novelist returns with 12 bis, avenue du Maréchal-Joffre. Certainly the book of summer, of those that we devour like a treasure in the shade of a blossoming lime tree.
At 18, Léa only knew the hospital or almost. But her frail body, marked by years of anorexia, hides an unusual strength and above all a fierce desire to live. So at the first tremors of summer, the girl decides to free herself for the first time from her existence from a suffocating family shackles. “Do i have a destinyShe wonders. Her answer, the young woman will seek it from those who, like her, live at 12 bis, avenue du Maréchal-Joffre, but in other cities of France.
An initiatory journey which will lead her not to the end of the world, but to the end of herself, in four "12 bis" chosen at random. For "check if the banality of the place where we live determines the greatness of destiny”, Lea leaves to meet Joseph, Milo, Marceau and Garance.
12 bis, avenue du Maréchal-Joffre is intended as an initiatory novel as much as an invitation to cast off. Léa's itinerary through the south of France, made up of train and sunny afternoon journeys, sweet fruit and burning roofs, reminds us that the most important journey is the one that leads to oneself . We are moved to see Léa rediscovering the taste for life and we can only be touched by the sensitive and delicate pen of Anne de Kinkelin.
A writing that also knows how to be pungent and incisive to shape atypical characters. 12 bis, avenue du Maréchal-Joffre skillfully foils the game of appearances and also shows that the intimate pains, very often hidden in the recesses of the soul, only need to be healed. Even if you have made your loneliness a shell.
A loneliness which is also that of Léa's parents, whose place also questions the place with great sensitivity. Collateral victims of their daughter's illness, their balance hangs by a thread. A thread that unties the novelist by also giving them a voice in the chapter. Because 12 bis, avenue du Maréchal-Joffre is also a love story between mother and daughter
Each chapter of 12 bis, avenue du Maréchal-Joffre is named after a song. From Nino Ferrer to Ibrahim Maalouf via Joni Mitchell or Adele, Anne de Kinkelin composes a playlist that accompanies doubts, joys and Léa's tortuous path. Songs that we like to listen to again and which will henceforth remain intimately linked to the trajectory of the young heroine. And then we only have one desire, to leave “On the road again”…
12 bis, avenue du Maréchal-Joffre is available at HarperCollins Publishing from June 3.