Yves Bichet

L'homme qui marche

Robert Coublevie marche sur la plus belle frontière du monde. Sa femme l'a quitté et il arpente ces hauts lieux où il croise des fleurs par milliers, des bêtes sauvages et libres, parfois un marcheur qui lui ressemble. Malgré tout, de temps à autre, il doit replonger dans le chaudron des villes... De nouveau confronté au tumulte, ne sachant que faire des tourments qu'il y découvre, Coublevie choisit d'en rire. La jeune Camille, elle, s'y débat comme un animal blessé, guettant les rumeurs du Café du Nord que tient son père. Elle a seize ans et dissimule de lourds secrets. Jusqu'où va-t-elle entraîner Coublevie? Jusqu'à quel crime? Veut-elle faire de lui le coupable idéal, le témoin complice? Une chose est sûre : la traque a commencé.

Yves Bichet, dans ce neuvième roman, dresse le portrait de personnages ardents et silencieux qui, debout sous les rafales, nous rappellent que la liberté est une folie joyeuse.

Bleue
Paru le 02/01/2014
Genre : Littérature française

176 pages - 140 x 205 mm
EAN : 9782715234635
ISBN : 9782715234635

Foreign Rights

The Walker

All rights available

Awards

Long-listed for the Prix Femina 2014

Presentation

« A former monitor in the agricultural college in Embrun (High Alps), vagrant by passion and by gloom, tough by duty, cuckold by carelessness, striding and fugitive. »

That is the Robert Coublevie’s self-portrait. A social outcast, he is a hobo. His life changed dramatically when his wife went away five years ago. Since, he walks with his female dog on the crest between France and Italy, above the village of Briançon. He never crosses the frontier, nor he goes down the Italian side. When he doesn’t spend the night in the mountain, he sleeps in some disused locals in the village, where he also has habits at the local bar, « Le Café du Nord ».

There he can find Sylvain Taliano, the owner, Camille, his daughter, Tapenade, the barfly, Mounir, the taciturn bartender. Their life seems well-ordered, without any unexpected event. But only until Tissot’s arrival, a « stranger » with the peculiarity of being a customs officer. Soon enough, Tissot is found dead… Is it an accident or a murder ? With his usual detachment, Robert Coublevie will investigate and discover heavy family secrets. Must he reveal them or take the justice into his own hands ?

Under the sign of an omnipresent nature in half-light shades, Yves Bichet describes a closed world. Among these rough and silent characters arises the amazing Robert Coublevie, the heavenly hobo whose figure enlightens the novel and makes a lasting impression.

Yves Bichet wrote numerous collections of poems and novels, including Resplandy (2010).

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