After the immense critical and commercial success of It happened at night and Twilight of the beasts – a million copies in bookstores – Marc Levy’s new novel, Noa, will be released in Quebec on May 27.
Each publication of a novel by the French writer Marc Levy is an event. Noa is her 23rd novel. His books have been translated into 50 languages and are internationally successful. Several of them have been adapted for the screen. For 20 years, Marc Levy has been the most read French writer in France (source GFK) and in the world, with more than 50 million copies sold.
This new mission of Group 9, hackers who work for good, presents a complex plot against the backdrop of international politics, extreme dramatic tension and fast pace. The writer shares his comments on this. “I was deeply touched by the enthusiasm the Group 9 characters and their story received. The fights they lead, and who they are, are particularly close to my heart.
More than ever, the power of fiction seemed important to me to relate the events that mark our time, to denounce the excesses of autocrats. I wanted to draw readers into an adventure and spy novel, sparing neither rhythm nor suspense. I had not imagined that this fiction would merge so quickly with reality.
Here is the excerpt from this highly anticipated new novel.
Not to be missed in the Saturday May 28 edition, the interview with Marc Levy. The author will be visiting Montreal on May 30 and June 1.
“At Okrestina prison, Minsk, Belarus, Friday morning.
For three hours, Daria has been waiting in a room adjoining the visiting room. A room of twelve square meters where the light of day struggles to cross the bars of a small window. The metal bench can accommodate three people. The word “bench” is flattering for a plank and a backsplash.
Daria is alone, visitation rights are rare, the authorities almost never grant any. But today it’s different, Daria comes to see Nicolaï to testify to his family that he is alive and in good health. This meeting takes place quarterly and only lasts five minutes. It is the consequence of a barely believable event that happened two years ago.
Nicolai is the reason for this story.
In the spring of 2020, in this country held with an iron fist by a man in power for twenty-seven years, a young mother, without experience or political ambition, won the elections. When the first polling stations reported that her name appeared on the majority of ballots counted, a squadron of police was dispatched to her home.
The men in uniform had forced the door of his apartment, aiming their weapons. To protect her two children, Sviatlania made a shield with her body. The government emissary who accompanied them stood out in his black suit and felt hat. The domed lenses of his round gold-rimmed glasses magnified the apple of his azure eyes. He had paced the living room of the one-bedroom apartment where Sviatlania and her family lived and stopped to look carefully at the picture frames on an Ikea bookcase. Precious photos for Sviatlania and Nicolaï but of a distressing banality for him. A photo of their five-year-old son, another of their daughter, a third where they all appeared together during summer vacation; you couldn’t make out where it had been taken. Alas, he had left them to leaf through some of the books on the shelves, which he had immediately put down, finding nothing subversive in this romantic literature. Then, flashing a creepy smile, he’d asked Sviatlania to sit on the couch, across from the corduroy chair he’d sat in, uninvited.
She exchanged a look with her husband. Nicolai had taken the children under his protection, hugging them in his arms; the police had let him and Sviatlania had complied.
“Is that how you treat your new president?” she had dared to challenge him.
The man’s smile twitched. He glanced at the kids.
— How could the people have entrusted their destiny to a young inexperienced housewife, with the challenges of today’s world, the economic crisis for which the West is responsible, the interference of our neighbors who want us to be destroyed in order to monopolize our wealth?
“What riches?” The people you like to talk about are killing themselves to work to barely earn enough to eat and clothe themselves, Sviatlania had retorted.
“Don’t interrupt me again!” We have little time before the situation degenerates and my men do not shine with their patience. Where was I? Ah yes, to the fact that you obviously lost this election.
“Your presence here proves the contrary,” objected Nicolai.
The emissary did not notice.
“If you really love your country, you don’t want to be guilty of serious public disorder,” he continued cynically. Although guilty, you already are, which is unfortunate. Luckily for you, our president is magnanimous. I even believe, without pretending to speak for him, that he has a certain esteem for you. You led a great campaign for a person of your condition, a woman moreover.
You had fun, that’s good, he added, clicking his tongue. It’s important to have fun once in a while, otherwise life would be so sad. But it’s over. In an excess of generosity that honors him, our president has asked me to send you a proposal that you cannot refuse as it is to your advantage. Unless you’re stupid, and I doubt that.”
Noah, Marc Levy. Editions Robert Laffont / Versilio, 367 pages.
1
