#BlogTour ‘Real Life’ by Adeline Dieudonne

About the book…

A fierce and poetic debut on surviving the wilderness of family life

At home there are four bedrooms: one for her, one for her little brother Sam, one for her parents, and one for the carcasses. Her father is a big-game hunter, a powerful predator, and her mother is submissive to her violent husband’s demands. The young narrator spends the days with Sam, playing in the shells of cars dumped for scrap and listening out for the melody of the ice-cream truck, until a brutal accident shatters their world. The uncompromising pen of Adeline Dieudonné wields flashes of brilliance as she brings her characters to life in a world that is both dark and sensual. This breathtaking debut is a sharp and funny coming-of-age tale in which reality and fantasy collide.

‘Real Life’ is published by World Editions in paperback and ebook formats from the 6th February 2020-my grateful thansk to Anne Cater of Random Things and the oublishers for the blogtour invite and my gifted review copy.

This is a hard book to review because I am genuinely struggling to find the words. It’s such a complete, auditory and sensory experience that I want to shove it into as many people’s faces as possible and go ‘trust me, read it.’

Far from an easy read, this story pulls no punches in the terms of depictions of violence-the unnamed narrator is growing up in the most toxic environment imagianable, her house is the encapsulation of a nightmare.

Her father is a big game hunter, yet his biggest conquests are the humans who he has trapped inside a project known as ‘The Demo’. The walls are decorated with the carcases of animals he will go to any length to slaughter. The rest of the family-narrator, younger brother Sam and their mother- live this odd existence of breath holding until he leaves to kill something. And then, they can breather, if only for short while.

A horrific accident leaves Sam completely traumatised, and through a melding of fantasy and reality, his sister sets out to emulate Back To The Future, using the parts she finds in a used car scrapyard to fuel her notions of creating her own time travel machine.

Her parents are a perplexity she cannot untangle, but in science and maths exists a truthfulness which is sorely lacking in her limited world.

What I loved about the book is the soporific poetry of the words chosen, so carefully, so deliberately that they paradoxically create a world at odds with the title-‘Real Life’, what is it? Is it a construct of those in power, or in reaction, does the oppressed rise up to form their own version of reality?

It has an immense power that draws you in, the lack of specific details such as a timeframe and geographical center makes the transferability of the story unique. It could have happened at any place and time, and that is incredibly moving.

As the narrator talks of her childhood, you do not get the sense that this is not her real, authentic voice-it anchors the reader to her, and Sam, as the sweetness of their relationship contrasts so vividly with the existence of their father’s violent attacks on their mother. Her lack of indifference to the family is difficult to fathom without understanding that she is in a horribly violent relationship.

Her survival tactics and choice to stay are not up for debate-reasons are complicated and nuanced so judgement and condemnation is both fruitless and completely uneccessary to pile upon her.

The motivating factors that move and drive the narrative are powerful and imbued with a truth and simplicity that recalls childhood dreams and ambitions. The closeness between the siblings is truly touching and beuatifully rendered.

Apart from warning about scenes of graphic violence, which may deter some readers, I would recommend finding a copy and seeing how this debut novel has become such a success in the author’s native France. Roland Glasser has done a magnificent job with the translation, it is a wonderful thing to read.

About the author…

Adeline Dieudonné is a Belgian author and lives in Brussels. Real Life, her debut novel, was published in France in Autumn 2018 and has since been awarded most of the major French literary prizes: the prestigious Prix du Roman FNAC, the Prix Rossel, the Prix Renaudot des Lycéens, the Prix Goncourt―Le Choix de la Belgique, the Prix des Étoiles du Parisien, the Prix Première Plume, and the Prix Filigrane, a French prize for a work of high literary quality with wide appeal. Dieudonné also performs as a stand-up comedian.

Twitter  @annecater @WorldEdBooks