Why was little Solveig stricken with amnesia at the Liberation, where she lost father and mother and her little brother? The story by spiral approach teaches us this at the end of the story that takes place in Gironde, in Lignon, an imaginary name well chosen because on the demarcation line separating the zone occupied by the Germans and the free zone, under the administration from Vichy.
Each protagonist successively speaks in short chapters which lead to the outcome and the complete resilience of Solveig, a freed woman who became a bookseller in Toulouse. The doctor lives in a mansion which lodges a handsome German adjutant of the occupation troops, who will live a liaison with the hostess. They are the parents of Solveig, a curious little girl, ahead of her age.
Justin investigates
Apparently Pétainists, the doctor and his wife Noémie will become authentic resistance fighters who even hide a Jewish family, under their roof, despite the presence of the Indé, the undesirable, the non-commissioned officer of the Wehrmacht, doubly unhappy by the rupture desired by Noémie and by his untenable situation, in the eyes of the Nazis, because he is a Mischling, of Jewish descent through his mother even if his father is Aryan. In the Girondin microcosm, Germain the gardener of the house, the good Ernestine do not have minor roles. The compartmentalization of resistance movements will lead to the tragedy, of which the spouses Lenoir, Armand and Noémie and little Valentin are victims and from which Solveig will emerge unscathed but traumatized.
It is the brave gendarme Justin, with the predestined name who will lead the investigation and especially allow Solveig, by the affection he has for him, to find his story and to achieve justice to punish the murderers of his parents. .
A well-constructed and well-conducted novel, sometimes moving, which holds you in suspense until the end.
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