Tobie des marais

by Sylvie Germain

Un petit enfant en ciré jaune roule sur son tricycle sous l'orage. On dirait un soleil miniature. On lui a crié : 'Va au diable !', et il y file, chassé par le vent du malheur.
Ainsi commence ce roman de Sylvie Germain où l'on voit ensuite une cavalière décapitée revenir sans sa tête, sur sa jument. Et cette tête demeure introuvable, et donc sans sépulture comme l'ont été tous les morts de la famille de Tobie du côté de la branche paternelle. Déborah, l'arrière-grand-mère de l'enfant, a quitté autrefois son village de Pologne pour émigrer en Amérique, mais, refoulée à Ellis Island, elle a fini par s'installer, après bien des détours, au cœur du Marais poitevin. Elle a traversé l'Histoire du siècle en perdant la plupart des siens, et se tient auprès de Tobie en gardienne de la mémoire.
Devenu jeune homme, Tobie se lie d'amitié avec Raphaël et tous deux partent en voyage. Au cours de celui-ci, Tobie fait la connaissance d'un peintre et de sa fille Sarra, aussi belle que maudite...
Pour raconter cette histoire riche en merveilleux, en émotions, en amour, Sylvie Germain s'est librement inspirée du célèbre récit biblique, le Livre de Tobie.

Genres: France, Literature, Fiction

264 pages, Mass Market Paperback

First published April 14, 1998

About the author

Germain received a doctorate in philosophy from the Sorbonne, and taught it at the French School in Prague from 1987 to 1993.
She claimed that philosophy, 'a continuous wonder' to her, was also too 'analytical', and she switched from Descartes and Heidegger to Kafka and Dostoevsky.
She grew up in rural France, in an area steeped in mythology and folklore, and she admitted 'that the power of place had a huge effect on me but it was an unconscious one'. That her prose was 'related to the earth ... the soil, the peasants, the trees', was revealed in her first novel, The Book of Nights (1985), which won six literary awards.
The second novel, Night of Amber (1987) continued from the first, and was followed by Days of Anger (1989). Despite this three-part structure, Germain claimed that she was 'trying only to express an obsessive image and to explain it to myself. I have no pretensions to creating a mythos. Each book begins with an image or a dream and I try to express that and give it coherence.'

Reviews

[Robin · Rating 5 out of 5]

Moest het voor unif lezen, heel erg mooi. Aanrader

[Hortense · Rating 5 out of 5]

Magnifique. Je suis conquise par l’écriture de Sylvie Germain. Les passages de rencontres sont exceptionnels.

[Missberet · Rating 5 out of 5]

Tobias is the son of Theodore and Anna, who gets a lift from two strangers that saw him alone in the road. His Mother, Anna, rode back home without her head .His Father days later has a stroke. In his debilitation he cannot speak or walk nor be a Father to Tobias. The mystery of where his wifes head is haunts him , even as years go by. Tobias proves his love to his Father by taking unnecessary beatings that his Father would be doing to himself, not Tobias, he does not want his Father to feel such pain as he already has emotionally and physically. His Grandmother, Deborah, takes care of him. Deborah was the witness of her own Mother's suicide, taking her brother with her, on the ship to America. Deborah, who had no family, was rejected by America and sent back to the old country. On the way back she meets her husband and they have two girls, Violet and Rosa. Rosa had Valentine who married Arthur and Theodore who married Anna. Violets fate came too soon along with her husband. Tobias' life takes a fairy tale leap when he is sent by his recovering Father to accept a debt that has been owed to him. Tobias meets Raphael who sets him on a good path in life as well as his Father also......

[Sylvie Flament · Rating 3 out of 5]

Belle écriture mais un peu trop bibliques à mon goût

[elena · Rating 3 out of 5]

beaucoup de mal à le lire même si l’écriture est très belle
c’est pas mon type de livre, j’ai trouvé ça un peu long

[Sae-chan · Rating 3 out of 5]

A very gloomy story, I could feel the cold breeze throughout reading it. Only I preferred the head not to be found. It would have added the air of mystery and narrowed the playing field. The supporting characters were explored a tad too much, that sometimes I lost focus on the main one.

I got scattered messages here and there, and overall it was a satisfying read.

[Caroline · Rating 1 out of 5]

Parut dans les années 2000, Tobie des Marais est une réecriture du mythe de Tobie de l'Ancien Testament dans le monde actuel.

Les images enigmatiques et le personnage de Raphael nous pousse vers une reflexion sur nous-même, notre identité. En dépit de quelques métaphores et images touchantes, le style d'écriture est assez moyen.