Laura Alcoba: Par la forêt (Through the Forest)

The latest addition to my website is Laura Alcoba‘s Par la forêt (Through the Forest). Laura Alcoba was born in Argentina but lives in France and writes in French. This novel tells the story of Griselda who has to flee Argentina with her(married) lover, Claudio, and they go to France. Initially he stays with his French-born wife but then, when Griselda gets pregnant Griselda and Claudio become caretakers at a school where a tragedy happens resulting in the death of their two young sons. We move to the present, thirty-four years later, and the narrator interviews the survivors, particularly Flavia, the now forty-year old daughter of Griselda and Claudio about what happened on that fateful day and subsequently. Alcoba recounts the event and its consequences not as journalist or investigator but as a story teller, even referencing myths/fairy tales and, as such, it works very well.

Leave a comment