«Elles», when the mother hurts

With They, In her third novel, Geneva-based writer Chirine Sheybani invites us to delve into the hearts of women, particularly mother-daughter relationships and their consequences.

It's a story in which «men are the secondary characters». With her new novel They, recently published by Cousu Mouche, Geneva-based writer Chirine Sheybani once again brings women's stories to life. Wounded women who, on the face of it, have nothing in common. On the one hand, there's Jeanne, whose husband has just left her. On the other, Oriane, a teenager whose anorexia is slowly extinguishing her.

As the pages turn, a mirrored story unfolds. The reader discovers Jeanne, an unhappy little girl, suffocated by a mother who has sunk into alcohol and bitterness. Her only support is her winegrowing grandfather, who takes her for long walks in the Geneva countryside. But this breath of fresh air fades all too soon, and Jeanne finds herself, aged just 14, on her own to keep her family from going under.

Oriane, for her part, was orphaned at a very young age. For a long time, her mother lived only for her, through her. «It's you and me against the whole world», she often hears. But it's only with a new marriage and a new child that her mother truly finds her smile again. Oriane soon realized that she was not up to the task. Eating too much - or, on the contrary, starving herself - means finally becoming worthy of being loved.

Roles reversed

«A woman who takes care of her mother, rather than her mother taking care of her, I wanted to see what it gave, I wanted to see what kind of path it created,» confides Chirine Sheybani. These little girls may be victims, but these mothers are not stepmothers either. On the contrary, they are women with a history, women «who couldn't do otherwise», as the author points out.

It is this multiplicity of female experience that interests Chirine Sheybani. «My voice could not be other than feminine», she explains. She says she's happy to be a woman. «It's being something particularly interesting, multiple, full of challenges, complications. There are so many possibilities open to us, and so many barriers to overcome,» says Sheybani, whose father is Iranian and whose mother is from Valais.

Inspired by Ramuz

How do you build when your roots are shaky? When the wood is a bit crooked, as Jeanne puts it? This is the question posed by Chirine Sheybani in this book.

For Jeanne and Oriane, salvation lies in nature. A great lover of Ramuz, the author brings to life with great detail and attention the Geneva countryside, the setting for so many of her walks. Together, the daughter of a winegrower and the daughter of a florist plant seeds that will begin to sprout. And they will, why not, agree to go on living, despite the pain.

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Chirine Sheybani
They
cousu mouche
2022
232 pages

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