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  • Today, "In the flesh of angels" by Cathy Borie, reissued on April 15, 2022 by Éditions d'Avallon.

Marceline Bodier, bookstagramer and contributor to the 20 Minutes

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reading group , recommends

Dans la flesh des anges

by Cathy Borie, reissued on April 15, 2022 by Éditions d'Avallon.

His favorite quote:

You find me different because in reality I am exactly like you.

Why this book?

  • Because the subject is the singular confrontation of each character

    with her gender identity: a mother has become a mother by denying her body;

    his daughter makes her way towards the revelation of her deep identity through encounters and friendly, romantic and sexual experiences;

    a young man, in an impossible search for himself, lives a love affair that is prevented;

    a couple seeks their limits and their communion through ambivalent bisexual experiences… self-discovery, introspection and sexual initiation are one and the same thing.

  • Because the subject is also the way in which these characters meet

    and make their destiny branch off in contact with each other.

    Neither an erotic novel where the story would be a pretext, nor a classic apprenticeship novel where sex would be euphemised, Dans la flesh des anges is a novel in the vein

    of Loo Hui Phang 's

    L'imprudence

    , of Pauline Delabroy 's

    Ça conte Sarah

    -Allard, or even

    Point Cardinal

    by Leonor de Recondo: the quest for oneself always passes through others and others, it is always the possibility of a sexual encounter.

  • Because initiatory journeys also go through art.

    Clémentine discovers her body when Pablo draws it or when Lise models it: “Under her fingers, the red earth was transformed little by little, and the object that emerged resembled a woman's face.

    In Clementine's face.

    Grégoire's life takes on meaning through the writing of scenarios in which his childhood mysteriously resonates.

    And his destiny changes when he discovers the exhibition of "huge and sumptuous" statues by Ingrid, who has titled her works "In the flesh of angels"...

  • Because we are confronted with the fate of paper characters,

    but it is also our lives that are deeply questioned and disturbed by disturbing questions.

    “Am I really and inevitably condemned to affective loneliness?

    asks Grégoire.

    And why would he be, why would we be… if not because behind the appearances that give us the illusion that we can get closer to others, can always hide secret flaws that make bonds too difficult to make us something other than angels.

  • Because we read it with passion, delighting in the way

    destinies intertwine and articulate.

    Then we understand the end of the matter: this is where we discover that in fact, we had not grasped anything!

    And yet, thinking a little more, we say to ourselves that we should have understood, that we had let ourselves be carried away and blinded when we had everything in front of us.

    Does this structure remind you of anything?

    In the flesh of angels, it's the new

    Confusion of feelings

    : inconsolable adorers of Stefan Zweig, rejoice, the next generation has arrived!


The essentials in 2 minutes

The plot.

The book alternates between the story of Clémentine, a young girl who cannot find herself, and that of Grégoire, a young man who cannot manage with what he has found in himself.

On their way, many significant experiences.

And a link, but which one?

Characters.

Painter, sculptor, screenwriter, actress, medical secretary… asexuals, heterosexuals, homosexuals, bisexuals… Like us, they are in search of their identity.

It's up to you to discover what they paint, sculpt, script, play and organize through their encounters!

Places.

The silence of the woods, the hustle and bustle of Paris, the creativity of Bourges, the remoteness of Barcelona, ​​and again, the silence – perhaps appeasement, perhaps death… In the flesh of angels is a journey , in every sense of the term.

The time.

Ours, to the rhythm of our internal temporality.

This fragile moment when the initiatory path towards adulthood is made, seeking its way between the difficulties of a childhood where we do not understand each other and the revelation of an adulthood where we must accept ourselves.

The author.

Cathy Borie is an author who builds an original work between poetry and novels, always with an extraordinary sense of formula that goes straight to the heart.

She is also the recent winner of the Prix des Auteurs Inconnus… unknown, but already recognized and to be discovered urgently!

This book has been read

with amazement, re-read with jubilation, re-read with gratitude towards the very innovative editions of Avallon, who have reissued it.

That's good, because the plot is so well thought out that once the last page is turned, we only want to read everything again from the beginning!

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