“The Deluge”, by Stephen Markley, translated from English (United States) by Charles Recoursé, Albin Michel, “Terres d’Amérique”, 1,056 p., €24.90, digital €17.
Generous in disasters, massacres, political violence and apocalyptic scenes, The FloodAmerican Stephen Markley’s voluminous second novel, however, stands out for its treatment of intimacy and detail, of sweetness and bitterness. Its highly compelling depiction of climate change and the ideological and social storm that accompanies it is based on a network of fragile, even tiny, emotions and thoughts.
Scrupulously attached to the imperceptible movements of the soul and heart of each of its characters, the narrative goes through a multitude of needle-eyes to show us the world in the process of sinking. Even more than the megafire El Demonio, which devastates Los Angeles in 2031, or Hurricane Kate, which devastates a large part of North Carolina in 2039, the misadventures and errors, the revolts and resignations of Matt, Keeper, Jackie, Shane and the Other castaways of the novel tell the reader exactly about this hell that pretends to be before us but is already ours.
Well known for his first novel, Ohio (Albin Michel, Grand Prize for American Literature 2020), Stephen Markley, born in 1983, worked on this new book for about ten years, before its publication in the United States in 2023. Its scope, its subject matter, its ability to play with the codes of documentary fiction and dystopia are obviously impressive. But what is most striking is elsewhere. Far from nestling comfortably in the hollow of a conventional epic architecture or a classic romantic tempo (as, for example, in Roland Emmerich’s film), Other (2004) –, the author seems, on the contrary, to enjoy deceiving his reader.
A consummate art of the ellipse
Polyphonic and polymorphic, the novel shifts narrative thread and character and relies heavily on a consummate art of ellipsis, constantly jumping from one story to another, from one decade to another – which is a shame for a work of such meticulous and dense text – some fake press clippings, research and reports filling in the gaps – spanning periods and events.
Because, during the time of a generation (2013-2039), The Flood attempts the impossible: capturing the consequences of global warming from the perspective of both women and men (and also one particularly successful non-binary character). Whether they are millennial activists working behind the scenes of American power in Washington, paranoid eco-terrorists, regretful and wavering capitalists, US military veterans, fentanyl-addicted misfits or overwhelmed single mothers, they are all doing their best to cope.
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