Three French Writers Explore Time's Ruptures in New Books

Three new books by Jean Louis Schefer, Marcel Cohen, and Pierre Bergounioux, published by P.O.L., Gallimard, and Argol respectively, delve into personal and historical fractures in time. Schefer's 'De quel tremblement de terre…' recounts a childhood and adolescence in Paris, Prussia, and Bavaria, marked by the collapse of belief in Christ's resurrection after witnessing the horrors of war, including a pilgrimage to Dachau. Cohen's 'Faits, III. Suite et fin' collects brief, stark narratives that capture moments of tragedy and horror, such as a watch belonging to Paul Celan, removed before his suicide in the Seine in 1970. Bergounioux's 'Le baiser de sorcière. Le récit absent' presents two inverted narratives: one tracing the Russian Revolution from Lenin to the Soviet collapse, the other detailing the brutal combat of young Soviet tankists entering Berlin in late 1944, ending with a 'witch's kiss'—a hollow charge piercing a tank's turret.