Serge Joncour, humanist by nature

Portrait of the writer Serge Joncour, Femina Prize 2020 for “Human Nature”.

(c) Jean-Philippe Baltel / Flammarion editions

By: Jean-François Cadet Follow

2 min

Serge Joncour returns with “Human Nature”, his 14th novel.

A rural fresco, tinged with humanism and ecology.

Earth-based literature, witness to the transformation of the countryside by globalization.

Publicity

The book begins with a prologue.

We are at the end of 1999. The hero, Alexandre, drags bags of fertilizer with him and wonders if he is not being watched by the gendarmes.

In the first sentences of the story, the words “ 

detonator

 ”, “ 

mortar

 ” appear, we say to ourselves that he is preparing something mysterious, vaguely disturbing, we don't know exactly what, but the tension is there.

We will have to wait for the very last pages to understand.

Between the two, the story of a family and love destiny, a rural destiny too, in a country in full transformation, the France of the 70s, 80s and 90s. Scenes always fair, often bittersweet, sometimes poetic, sometimes absolutely hilarious, which also tell us about the world of today since it is about ecology and agriculture, city and countryside, progress and worry, love and violence.

In short, a novel will rarely have borne its name so well: 

Nature humaine

, by

Serge Joncour,

has appeared by Flammarion editions.

Replay of the show of Thursday, September 10.

Newsletter

Receive all the international news directly in your mailbox

I subscribe

Follow all the international news by downloading the RFI application

google-play-badge_FR

  • Culture

  • Literature