"They call it love" by Chloé Delaume, so that shame changes time

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During a weekend with friends, the author takes her heroine Clotilde back to the memory of an abusive relationship. This gives her character the opportunity to put new words to the subject of violence against women.

Chloé Delaume in Paris in June 2023. (Romy Alizée/Libération)

Reviews, interviews, selection... "Libé" guides you through the aisles of the 47th edition of the Nancy Book Fair, a major literary event, which takes place from September 12 to 14.

Clotilde Mélisse, Chloé Delaume 's romantic double, drags her rolling suitcase across the cobblestones like one carries a dream. Here she is, back in a landscape she thought was behind her. But chance does things badly, or there is no such thing as chance (especially not in novels): for the All Saints' Day weekend, her friends (Adélaïde, Bérangère, Judith, Hermeline, we've been following them since Le Cœur synthétique ) have rented a house not far from where Clotilde lived with an ex ( "Monsieur," he will only be referred to as such). A little more and we could be in the "chick lit" section, except that we are in the home of the explorer Delaume: even in a more readily catchy side of her work, there is always room for experimentation beneath the surface. Once settled, Clotilde looks at herself in the mirror. "She had managed to camouflage it until now, to the point of forgetting it by dint of applying makeup by mixing plaster and rice powder. Now that she is naked, she admits it: no more face. How did that happen?"

Violence against women Domestic violence