Imprisoned in the Biberbrach camp, where he and his comrades were taken after a twelve-day journey in a cow wagon, the narrator of Départ dans la nuit tried several times to escape. And if, during a transfer, he ends up carrying out his plan, taking along some reluctant companions and murdering two German sentries along the way, he gains less freedom than more anguish and solitude…
Written in Algiers in 1943 and dedicated to General de Gaulle, this novel of escape continues with Non-lieu, completed the following year. The narrator, having finally returned to occupied France, now wanders hopelessly through a country slumped by the debacle, among his relatives and indifferent compatriots. His fantasy of heroism turns into a race to the abyss…
Published through the intermediary of Marcel Aymé and Albert Camus, these two works form a diptych that constitutes the testament of Emmanuel Bove (1898-1945), “patron saint of pure writers” according to Peter Handke.