Maylis de Kerangal's Many Voices: A Chance Encounter on a Train

The article recounts a serendipitous meeting between Maddalena Fingerle and Charlotte Ladevèze on a train from Venice to Munich. Fingerle, an Italian, was reading the children's book Pimpa aloud to her son, while Ladevèze, a French woman, was finishing Maylis de Kerangal's novel "Réparer les vivants" (Repairing the Living) with headphones on. After Ladevèze finished the book, they began conversing in German, both with accents. Fingerle admitted she had cried so much reading the novel that she had left it unfinished, and Ladevèze encouraged her to finish it, noting its emotional power. They discovered they lived near each other, worked at the same university, and both wanted to learn each other's language. Ladevèze wrote about water, rivers, and river landscapes transformed by human activity, a topic that resonates with Kerangal's themes. The article, published on doppiozero.com, explores the connection forged through literature and language, highlighting the novel's impact and the shared experience of reading.