Rouergue

Anne-Sophie Kalbfleisch’s debut novel is impressive with her mastery and the beauty of her writing, the coming-of-age story of two young people in search of emancipation, Ellie the enigmatic and and May the volcanic. In an America of intolerance and religious dogmatism, they both fight for a world freer and more loving world.

When the detective knocks on the door of the tiny house where Ellie has taken refuge, the time has come to tell her story. The love for May. May’s departure a year and a half ago, harpooned so to speak by her dreams of whales, which took her far away from Eureka, this pious town surrounded by gigantic cornfields. The need to raise a lot of money, and also to devise a plan. Gradually there emerges the portrait of a childhood dominated by a violent disciplinarian of a father and the big local landowners, the Meyers. As Ellie desperately tries to find a way to leave herself in pursuit of May, she realises she is treading in the footsteps of her mother, whose ghost is suddenly conjured up.

With one truth unlocking another, Ellie discovers what is really haunting Eureka – the things that people don’t speak of and only dare to express through the words of the bible. And above all she finds out what really happened to the fragile and scandal-provoking Eleanor, who refused to submit to the status quo.

In this impressively assured and beautifully written debut novel, Anne-Sophie Kalbfleisch tells the story of the coming of age of the enigmatic Ellie and the fiery May, and of their bid for freedom.