{"id":516414,"date":"2023-02-21T06:00:00","date_gmt":"2023-02-21T05:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/?p=516414"},"modified":"2023-02-21T08:23:38","modified_gmt":"2023-02-21T07:23:38","slug":"fleeing-the-war-on-board-a-blue-lada","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/leregardlibre.com\/en\/literature\/fleeing-the-war-on-board-a-blue-lada\/","title":{"rendered":"Fleeing the war on board \u2019A blue Lada\u00ab"},"content":{"rendered":"

Geneva-based author Micha\u00ebl Perruchoud has chosen the war in Chechnya as the backdrop for his new novel. In this work, he examines the compromises everyone is prepared to make in order to survive.<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n\n\n\n\n

There are four of them in Micha\u00ebl Perruchoud's latest novel, A blue Lada<\/em>, published in autumn 2022 by Cousu Mouche. Four barely-adult girls: Katarina, Zilia, Laoura and Sa\u00efda. The year is 1999, Grozny, Chechnya. For the second time in the recent history of this former Soviet republic, war is approaching, as Russian troops advance under the impetus, already, of a certain Vladimir Putin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Micha\u00ebl Perruchoud never indulges in bloodshed. Fighting never appears in the pages of\u2019A blue Lada<\/em>. But the consequences of this conflict are present on almost every page, in this portrait of a world falling apart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Faced with these four teenage girls, no one comes out on top. The warlords - presented as heroes by some of the population - are in fact brutes consumed by greed and bloodlust. Russian soldiers, if not liberators, are out-of-control drunks. Humanitarians are not so altruistic. And even the parents are resigned, cowardly, paralyzed by fear, tradition and their own contradictions.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A refuge from war<\/strong><\/h3>\n\n\n\n

Faced with them, these young girls have no one to turn to but themselves. This blue Lada abandoned at the back of a courtyard is their refuge from death and bombardment. Here, they can turn 18 and sing at the top of their lungs to old 80s hits. It is also this blue Lada that takes them to freedom, a symbol of hope and a second life.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But there's no Hollywood happy ending in this novel, no larger-than-life hero who saves these teenagers and leads them to a brighter tomorrow. Katarina, Zilia, Laoura and Sa\u00efda do not emerge unscathed. To survive, they too will have to grow up and make compromises and compromises with their consciences and ideals.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Katarina is desperate to return to St. Petersburg and her old life, and will stop at nothing to achieve this. The wise Laoura must renounce everything her upbringing has taught her in order to find a protector for her sister and herself. And even the independent Zilia, who dreams of freedom in the West, seems for a moment to question her choices in the face of uncertainty and solitude.<\/p>\n\n\n\n