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Today, "Le grand baobab bleu" by Daniel Schick, published on April 28, 2022 by Éditions Albin Michel.
Alain Raimbault, writer, blogger and contributor to the 20 Minutes
Books reading group
, recommends
Le grand baobab bleu
by Daniel Schick, published on April 28, 2022 by Éditions Albin Michel.
His favorite quote:
“Mathieu places Demba on an infusion of stories that are foreign to him.
These are for Demba exotic, exhilarating, distracting, nourishing: bandages.
Visits to museums, stories of works, stories of the lives of creators are operations of embellishment which allow the two men to breathe their existence more easily.
They need to leave the human condition, their human condition.
»
Why this book?
Because this novel is a hymn to painting, to museums
, to creators, to art which is, to evoke Stendhal or Baudelaire, “a promise of happiness”.
But also a reminder of misfortune.
One of the creators here is Picasso, a few of whose paintings will become the driving force behind the action.
Indeed, facing the
Acrobate à la boule
, the main character, the Malian Demba exiled in Paris, will relive painful moments from his past and understand that he must act to free himself.
Art becomes more than a promise, more than a need, it appears as evidence, a solution, an intimate response.
Because beyond the intense story of friendship between Mathieu and Demba in Paris
, it is about the clandestine exile of Africans to Europe, the uncertain journey through the desert, their exploitation and their assassination by all kinds of criminals, or their drowning in the great cemetery without burial that is the Mediterranean, in general indifference.
Because this book addresses a terrible theme, which is that of pedophilia
practiced by a member of the family, here Demba's uncle.
The raped child has no solution to flee his situation and must endure abuse for years.
The weight of the rapist's authority is too heavy and prevents him from speaking.
The child is destroyed from an early age.
It takes time and extraordinary strength to be able to survive such an attack.
Exile, flight is the beginning of a solution, but the pain persists.
How to heal from such a trauma?
The essentials in 2 minutes
The plot.
Demba, aged in his twenties, flees his village more to forget his past than misery.
He arrives in Paris after years of traveling and meets by chance Mathieu who will make him discover museums and creators.
Characters.
Mathieu, former art critic.
Demba, Malian refugee in Paris.
Demba's uncle and mother.
Places.
Paris ;
Le Bourget;
the village of Sébé in northern Mali;
North Africa.
The time.
Today.
The author.
Daniel Schick is a man of art and media.
He has worked for radio and television in the cultural field.
The Big Blue Baobab is her first novel and her fourth book.
This book was read with an appreciation
for how art can alter the trajectory of characters.
The message is luminous, poetic, existential.
Yes, I liked it very much.
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Book sheet 20 Minutes
Books
Novel
Exile
mali
Africa
Art