The wind in your body

Le Regard Libre No. 65 - Jérémy Berthoud

With La Horde du Contrevent, a science-fiction novel published in 2004 by Editions de La Volte, Alain Damasio puts down on paper indelible vocables that a pair of eyes will suffice to engrave in the flesh. La Horde is first and foremost the story of twenty-three people trained from childhood to cross the land of their flat world from one end to the other to discover the origin and nine forms of the wind. It is also - and above all - a unique object and material experience for the reader.

Opening Damasio’s *La Horde du Contrevent* means preparing for a long journey. This adventure begins on the very first page with a list of twenty-three characters presented as follows: to the left of their surname is a glyph, and to the right, a social rank, a profession, or a title. For example, Sov Sevcenko Strochnis, preceded by a ), is a scribe; Ω Golgoth