What prompted you to write this long family story?
Bruno LACK: “When I was little and even a teenager, my grandmother, Joséphine, often told me: ‘Bruno, the father of Édouard, your great-grandfather, was in America, do you realize? ”. And she was telling me how Émile, my great-grandfather, arrived in Cincinnati, Ohio. Being young, we don’t necessarily pay attention to the stories our elders tell. But this sentence and the words of my grandmother, buried in my memory, resurfaced, from time to time, like a refrain. To the point of surprising myself telling the story of my great-grandfather to my children and my grandchildren. Until the day Solène, my daughter-in-law, encouraged me to write this story. “
How did you go about writing your book?
“I already had to transcribe what my grandmother and my father told me. Then, I built my novel around a historical and logical framework leading Émile de Lutzelbourg to Cincinnati: the steam train journey to Paris, the embarkation for America, his life as a stonemason in the German community, his incredible marriage to an Alsatian and then his return to the native village. In fact, I slipped into the character of my great-grandfather. “
Contact: Bruno Lack’s Facebook page or by email at [email protected]
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