What a family! The grandmother is fascinated by the shadows of old Russia. The two sons are incapable of making a decision, and the mother is there, mistress of the place and her house, but what kind of house?
Somewhat like the Thénardiers, a family annihilated by alcohol. Russians, Romanians? Human shadows lost in Alsace and Lorraine. Tita, is she a victim, or like the others, a part of this drama weaving and unfolding before us?
Each page is more sordid than the last. Lies, truths, who is Tita’s father? Everything ends with two gunshots, but did Michel shoot into the air or at this girl and himself?
Yann Queffélec leaves us the answer. A gripping and sordid novel, a poignant and shocking story. The author uses opposites, and this woman under the horizon, that of life, destiny, and the future, will somehow miss this future, that of life and childbirth, as a curse prevents her from assuming her role of passing on life.
So under the horizon? A sun that would never rise, a tomorrow that would not exist. A cursed family, in some ways.
Thierry Jan
