The reading circle of the Vent de Soleil bookstore, in Auray, welcomed Friday, June 10, Michel Sibra, writer and filmmaker, Alréen by adoption since 2017. He came to present his latest novel, “Arizona mon amour”, taking both historical fresco and thriller. In common thread: the hunt for a young historian in the footsteps of her grandfather who disappeared after the war of 39-45.
“In any war, suffering on both sides”
The author feeds his scenario from real events, such as the escape of 20 German submariners from Papago Camp, Arizona. “In reality, they were all taken over. In the novel, two of them escape prosecution”… It also evokes the war seen from the side of the losers, through the traumas experienced by two Germans and an Alsatian enlisted in the “despite us”. “You have to understand that in any war, suffering is present on both sides,” explains the author.
By mixing the little story with the big one, it also implicitly pays homage to the historian Jacques Le Goff “who revolutionized his discipline by humanizing it”.
Practice
“Arizona my love”, Michel Sibra, MVO editions, 460 pages, 20 €.
–
