In his new novel, How I FoundXavier Dupont de Ligonnès, Romain Puértolas revisits the famous case from a new angle: mixing investigation and fiction – even unbridled fantasy – he exposes very real theories while staging himself with humour. One fine morning, the famous fugitive materializes on the terrace of the neighbor's house, which he has rented for a time. Despite the years that have passed, the author of The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir, who was stuck in an Ikea wardrobe, admits that of a quintuple family murder, but waits until he has gathered some evidence worthy of the name before alerting the gendarmes. Little does he know that this is the beginning of a story that will lead to a murder trial – with a butter knife! – from one to the other. Maintenance.
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Madame Figaro.- What was the starting point for this novel?
Romain Puértolas.- First of all, the investigation. It all started in April 2011 with the case itself, which immediately fascinated me. I was a young police lieutenant, I worked at Ocriest, the former Office for the Fight against the Smuggling of Migrants, and I was responsible for document fraud. So I had extensive knowledge of illegal border crossing and how to get fake identity documents. I immediately thought that Ligonnès might have left the territory without drawing attention to himself, and I began to explore leads. For me, the thesis of suicide propagated by the media and public opinion did not hold water. I have moved 39 times in thirty years, lived in several countries, learned several languages; this singular journey allowed me to acquire a great capacity for adaptation and to put myself in the head of Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès... But little by little, it all became too gripping, too macabre. I spent my days and nights there, it was unhealthy. I decided to drop everything. Until I saw on the terrace of my neighbor, who sometimes rents out his house on Airbnb, a guy who looks a lot like Ligonnès, in a bathrobe, sipping coffee and reading the newspaper. When I checked, it wasn't him, but it made me want to take my investigation out of the drawer and mix it with a fiction: what if Ligonnès appeared like that, one morning, next to me, what would I do?
For me, the thesis of suicide propagated by the media and public opinion did not hold water
Romain Puértolas
Has your experience in policing helped you?
First of all, in the methodology of the survey, and secondly, as I said, in my knowledge of border crossings and obtaining false papers. I don't think Ligonnès got any false papers but I think he had to cross a border, it was the best solution for him. And especially that of the United States, a country he knows well and which is far enough from France to live quietly. An American, John List, did exactly the same thing as Ligonnès in the 1990s and mysteriously disappeared. When he was found, thanks to a co-worker who came across a show about the case and recognized him, he had remarried and was living 400 kilometers away from where he had murdered his entire family! 400 kilometres! The distance between Nantes and Agen. He had lived quietly for more than eighteen years. So it's possible.
You didn't write a document, you wrote a novel, and a deliberately zany novel. Why this choice?
Because I'm a writer first and foremost, I make up stories. This novel is the first inspired by a true story. I didn't want to write an essay or an investigation. My thing is to imagine scenes, to tell strong things in the first person, so that the reader also experiences them in the first person. That's what I know how to do. So that's what I did. As far as humour goes, I was born that way. I see everything through the prism of derision and self-deprecation. Humour is, for me, the most dangerous and powerful weapon. But be careful, I don't disrespect the victims at any time, it's a terrible story.
How I found Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, Romain Puértolas, Albin Michel. Press
You're putting yourself on stage, playing with a fictional version of yourself. To what end?
Isn't France the country of autofiction? Houellebecq, Tesson, Carrère and Angot staged themselves in more or less autobiographical works. "Why not me?" I thought to myself. Again, it was the first time. And I had a lot of fun projecting myself into the novel and becoming a character. I'm not lying, I'm sincere in what I say. The autobiographical part is precisely the real part of the book, the one where I investigate, with my mistakes, my false leads. I'm not saying, "Look, I'm the super cop," even though I do point out many flaws in the investigation. No one is perfect. I, too, am in a mess when I can't find Mindy's ranch (Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès' ex-girlfriend, editor's note) on Google Earth, I cry, I get depressed, I throw everything away, then I take it all back and get back to work. We're not in a detective series where everything is fiction, we're in a real cop's life, with its doubts and flaws.
Could you tell us a few words about Spain, where you live and which can be found here in the background?
I am of Spanish descent through my maternal grandfather, hence my last name, Puértolas. I studied to become a university professor of Spanish. In 2000, I left France and came full circle, going in the opposite direction to my grandfather who had left his native country for France. I lived in Barcelona, Madrid and finally settled in Malaga after the success of The Extraordinary Journey of the Fakir which was stuck in an Ikea wardrobe. Spain is my home. Like France. It's wonderful to have two languages, two cultures, to be at home in two countries. Spain plays an important role in this novel because one of my theories is that Ligonnès fled to Catalonia – a French netizen living there claimed to have seen him during the pandemic. It's a plausible destination. There are no longer any land controls at the French-Spanish border and Ligonnès speaks the language. He could live here, next door to me. We come back to the idea of my novel. And in the first chapter...
How I found Xavier Dupont de Ligonnès, Romain Puértolas, Albin Michel, 288 pages, €19.90.