Scientific intrigue in Lyon

Sophie Divry (Montpellier, 1979), journalist, writer, and feminist activist, won the France Bleu and Independent Bookstores of France Best Summer Novel Award for her latest work, Fantastic Love Story . The work centers on two characters—we learn about their development in alternating chapters—who live in Lyon and who come together around a scientific episode with thriller overtones. Lyon and the scientific theme lend character to the story.

Bastien is a forty-two-year-old labor inspector. He suspects that the accident at a plastic waste treatment plant is actually a homicide. Maïa is in her mid-thirties, a science journalist trying to make ends meet in the precarious world of specialized publishing. She has a special connection with the birds she feeds in the park, the same one where Bastien goes jogging.

⁄ The protagonist suspects that the accident at a waste treatment plant is a homicide

The woman suffers from "disappearance-itis": many of her belongings disappear from childhood. Later in the story, Maïa must guard the key to an important briefcase. The two pages in which we follow her journey from Switzerland to her home in Lyon manage to keep us in suspense.

Both she and Bastien are single and carry their own troubles. He is burdened by the heavy shadow of a childhood of psychological abuse and contempt from his parents, as well as the failure of a romantic relationship. Maïa is burdened by the loss of her mother and the long-distance relationship with her father. She avoids commitment in relationships, which leads her to fleeting sexual encounters.

Divry, who had dealt with themes such as loneliness in previous novels, in Signatura 400 (Blackie Books) or in Trois fois la fin du monde , about a man following a nuclear explosion, has tackled themes such as the malaise of French youth in When the Devil Came Out of the Bathroom (Malpaso) or religious beliefs in Journal d'un recommencement . These issues appear in the background here – Bastien goes to mass on Sundays and both protagonists deal with life alone. The weight of the narrative falls on the investigation into the work accident, the hypotheses that are established, the characters that appear around them – police, investigators, Maïa's scientist aunt, pharmaceutical companies… –. It is an engaging story due to its details and descriptions, locations and atmospheres.

Readers repeatedly visit the recycling plant where the accident occurred, and end up seeing the compactor where a worker was found dead and where pieces of scintillating glass, with disastrous consequences, have been deposited. The author discusses the CERN investigations where glass and its derivatives have been manipulated.

Last summer, Bonnie Garmus's The Chemistry Lessons triumphed, with whom this novel shares the ingredients of intrigue and scientific themes. The power of the young and peculiar researcher Elisabeth Zott prevailed, and the story was peppered with touches of humor. Here, the characters are ordinary people with ordinary lives. Introspective and without particularly distinctive features, their jobs, apartments, or the streets they navigate lend an air of truth—like so many French films that capture a slice of life.

The author uses friendship as a space for her protagonists to open up. Bastien and the bookseller Henri, and Maïa and her coworker Florence, share their troubles and weaknesses. The book perfectly reflects the uncertainties of middle-aged people. Despite the title, the novel is sustained by the intrigue that prevails after a more descriptive and traditionalist beginning.

Sophie Divry Fantastic love story Translation by Íñigo Jáuregui.Nórdica. 432 pages. 24.95 euros