Chrysalis, Pastoral in B Minor

A plague of Asian wasps endangers the production of honey in a neighbourhood in the middle of the Dordogne. On a sweltering summer day, someone arrives to make an environmental report and finds a fragile microclimate on the verge of collapse. An elderly couple, Emma and Olivier, welcome some young citizens whom no one knows into their home and who, according to the village bar, are desperate. As witness, the villagers have an ancient mirror, a chrysalis clinging to a hinge and the old translator who, losing his memory and faculties, observes them all from the library. A halo of tragedy hovers over the district: the visit of a foreign woman, the intrigues of her son to build a housing estate there, the disappearance of a dog, the life calendar of the florist, guided by the garrison of bouquets and the first wreath. Susanna Rafart unfolds a fable with a ternary rhythm of unusual beauty. A gem in which readers catch glimpses of everything that is hinted at and are moved by what is kept silent.