Illustrating Scotland’s highlands, its mountains, its lakes, its great nature, author Fanny Demeule tells three stories that are woven into the intertwining of Celtic art in her new novel, hilly terrain. Powerful novel, highly evocative, shocking reality and legend, it tells about the power of nature and its liberating power. A famous third novel.
Fanny Demuele, herself a great admirer of Scotland, envisioned the journey of three travelers who cross these hostile mountainous regions, the Highlands. Travel encounters them, elevates them, breaks them, liberates them.
The novel describes the transformation of three women who do not know each other, but who will be united by a strange force: a doctoral student, a mother, and a survivor. They will no longer be able to lie to each other or run away from what scares them, and will have to face their own ghosts.
an inspired approach
Talented, Fanny Demuele has written a novel that stands out for its power, poetry, depth and connection to the Scottish landscape, whether real or stemming from local legends. “This book turned out like magic. I don’t know what happened, she remarks in an interview. One idea after another appeared to me, almost holding my hand. It was quite dazzling. It’s an experience I’ve never had before: the feeling that the whole book is already written in me. This is a really big writing bubble that I experienced at home, during confinement. “
Fanny first thought of collecting short stories, as she enjoyed her experience in the collective. monsters and ghosts, where he wrote a horror story set in a Scottish town. “Eventually, the stories complemented each other and it became a novel. “
travel experiences
In this book, she shares many travel experiences in Scotland, which she loves dearly. “I love this country so much! I feel at home. I took two trips and they fed me a lot and I was able to put it to good use hilly terrain. »
She makes many references to Scottish literature and poetry. “I didn’t know that some writers had come from there. i think of robert louis stevenson and his treasure Island – The story of the setting of the adventure novels we know today. Me, it is the travelogue and the opening side of the adventure story which I find very interesting. “
She also wanted to incorporate these literary references into the structure of hilly terrain, by telling the story of women who go on an adventure and those who take the initiative. “I found that I really liked Scottish literature, but also its culture in general: music, tales and legends.”
connection to nature
His book talks a lot about the relationship with nature. “I wanted to show, in a way, the natural places, the places we cross, the places we travel to and what finally settles us. Nature is both fascinating and dangerous. This interested me greatly: the link between nature and our own nature has created a play of echoes between these two dimensions through the book. And, in the book, there are more and more intertwinings between the three stories. A braiding that perfectly evokes Celtic art. “That’s what I had in mind at the beginning of the project: Celtic interlacing. It’s a major form in Gaelic art and I love the idea of things being connected, interlaced.”
- Fanny Demuele teaches at UQAM and serves as editorial manager for the Tete Premiere and Hammack editions.
- He has published three novels: dig up bones, natural light red And mukbang.
- Bagels, A book dealing with eating disorders, illustrated by Amelie Dubois, is also published by Edison Hammack.
