Anne Brécart

La Lenteur de l'aube

«A few weeks before I left for the city on the lake, I had received a letter from my mother — she most often communicated through hand-written letters, an old habit dating from a time before computers and when telephone calls were expensive. It had surprised me. Frightened me, even.»

What kind of world does Hanna inhabit? She returns to the city she grew up in – and it is no easy return. Her mother, who had summoned her back, is still difficult, but Hanna had expected that. What was so urgent that she had to leave the United States and come back right away? Suddenly her terminally ill mother is in no hurry to see her daughter. So Hanna takes a room in a small boarding house where she and her mother had lived thirty years earlier, and begins to explore the neighbourhood. Walking through the 'city by the lake' that clearly refers to Geneva, she meets ghosts from her past. She meets people who were once important to her: friends, lovers, playmates from the old days. People for whom she once risked everything. They have remained here, while she has long been living in New Jersey.
They are all now present: Alma, with whom she once shared so much; Karim, her lover for one unforgettable summer; Marika, the artist for whom she once posed as a model, who no longer recognises her. Why are they all crossing her path? Are these meetings really taking place? It takes a long time for Hanna to realise that she is exploring her own past, thinking about farewells, remembering and forgetting. In the end it is her dying mother, and Hervé, whom she has come to trust, who accompany her on her path to a new life.

(Martin Zingg, trans. by Marcy Goldberg)

Recommended for translation by the Swiss Arts Council Pro Helvetia:
www.12swissbooks.ch

Translation of title: The Slowness of Dawn

Editions Zoé, Genève 2012

ISBN: 978-2-88182-859-1