The Silence of the Spirits

An undocumented African ex-soldier and a lonely French nurse’s aide meet on a commuter train heading toward the outskirts of Paris in this slim, intense, and bleak portrait of an improbable love affair and its implications for postcolonial France. Clovis is fleeing the shame of the monstrous acts he committed during the chaos following the outbreak of an unspecificed civil war, and Christelle—accustomed to caring for others at the hospital where she works—takes pity on him after inadvertently helping him escape an ID check on the train. She eventually invites him into her home when she realizes that he has nowhere else to stay, and these two lost souls find welcome solace in each other’s company. But the limits of their newfound feelings for one another are tested when Clovis confesses what he did during his time as a child soldier, and what follows is a metaphorical examination of how people must confront the darkness of the past in order to forge a better future. Through the allegory of a single encounter between two people in a city of millions, this novel expertly investigates the precariousness of social order in a time of increasing intolerance toward outsiders. (Aug.)