The song “Les Vieux Amants” could illustrate this novel, a thesis on adultery, on the impossible love between a man and a woman. Both of them find various ways to meet, love each other, and make love. She, Elisabeth, married with two children; he, Gabriel, a gardener, and it is in the botanical garden where they find each other.
A chance encounter, except that Gabriel wants to see this woman again and embarks on a search usually doomed to fail, except that love has unsuspected weapons, plus there are two elderly women, the companions of Gabriel’s father, who will help him with their advice. The stage is set, Gabriel will find her again and…
Let’s not lift the veil, then a child will be born, that is the main focus of this novel, Gabriel writes to his son, explaining his birth. With Elisabeth, they are two old lovers, and telling their story is for Gabriel a sort of elixir of youth.
Erik Orsenna offers us the story of two people who should never have met, but we know well that only mountains never meet. An erotic novel where the beauty of the sentences and words makes it a poem, a hymn to love without ever sinking into vulgarity, except for being prudish, hypocritical, and pharisaical.
Thierry Jan, writer
