Born in 1971 in a village in the district of Hérens, in Valais, Sarah Jollien-Fardel lived for several years in Lausanne before settling back in her canton of origin.
She signs her first novel.
LE FIGARO.
- You describe the peasant world not through nature, but through its suffering.
Is this a resolutely antilyrical and even antibucolic choice?
No way.
In a sort of internal monologue by Jeanne when she returns home with Charlotte, she thinks of the beauty of the Valais.
Elsewhere, there are passages on Vercorin.
I seem to have described the beauty of Valais in particular and that of Switzerland in general, notably through evocations of Lake Geneva which is a metaphor for amniotic fluid – the mountains providing Jeanne with an image of her father.
The Valaisans have the reputation of being great storytellers.
Despite the air of autofiction, how is your novel subject to the codes of narration dear to these storytellers?
Indeed, storytelling has been very important to us.
But that was long before I was born, in my grandmother's or my mother's time, when there was no television.
The only distraction was telling stories.
As a child, I loved when my mother or my grandmother told me about it in turn.
I had a runaway imagination and myself, I always loved telling stories.
You are right, the gift of storytelling is a marked trait among the Valaisans.
They express themselves instinctively.
French-speaking writer, you slipped the title of a book by Stefan Zweig into your novel at the end of which you thank the Austrian writer Robert Seethaler.
Do you claim influence from German-language literature?
Not at all, or else unconsciously.
As a teenager, I read Stefan Zweig in French.
I am more oriented towards French and American literature than towards the works of my German-speaking compatriots.
But the language doesn't matter.
When I read Toni Morrisson, I'm black;
when I read Chantal Thomas, I swim with her;
when I read
Pierre
, by Christian Bobin, I am Soulages.
I am universal.
In this regard, someone wrote me a very nice note about my novel: “
It's a Valais story, so it's a universal story.
I gladly take it up on my own.