Юношите от пещерата

by Emmanuelle Pagano, Юлиан Жилиев (translator)

Действието на „Юношите от пещерата“ се развива в планинските райони на департамента Ардеш. Адел е шофьорка на училищно микробусче – тайната й се разгъва пред читателя посредством множество ретроспекции, минало и настояще непрекъснато се преплитат. Със силното си присъствие в романа природата се превръща в своеобразен персонаж, концентриращ усещанията на шофьорката и учениците. Ще успеят ли те да проникнат в тайната й, ще я разберат ли? Смущаващ въпрос, насочен и към нас, читателите.
Отличен с множество награди (Награда за литература на Европейския съюз, награда „Маргьорит Юрсенар“, награда на региона Рон-Алп, предназначена да насърчава екранизацията на отличените романи), преведен досега на немски и испански, романът е своеобразна, пропита от поезия алегория в проза на екзистенциалната драма на съвременния човек.

Genres: Fiction, Queer, France, Contemporary

200 pages, Paperback

First published January 4, 2007

About the author

Emmanuelle Pagano, alias Emmanuelle Salasc, née le 15 septembre 1969, dans l'Aveyron, est une écrivaine française.

Emmanuelle Pagano was born in Aveyron in September 1969. She lives today in Ardèche, with three children, born in April 1991, September 1995 and May 2003. She graduated in Fine Arts, and has done university researches in the field of esthetics in the cinema as well as the multimedia.

Reviews

[Tomasz · Rating 4 out of 5]

Bardzo mocno czuć, że książka powstała kilkanaście lat temu, bo wykorzystuje określenia, od których odeszliśmy już w mówieniu o transpłciowości („dziewczyna uwięziona w ciele chłopca”, „urodzona w złym ciele”, no błagam). Poza tym nie wiem jak to wygląda w oryginale, ale stosowanie na zmianę form żeńskiej i męskiej ciągle wybijało mnie z rytmu. Oprócz tego- historia transpłciowej kierowczyni szkolnego autobusu, która pracuje w swoich rodzinnych stronach, gdzie nikt nie wie o jej przeszłości brzmi intrygująco i taka też jest. Bez upiększeń i udziwnień, porusza kilka aspektów transpłciowości, z których zapewne wiele osób nie zdaje sobie sprawy. Ciekawa rzecz, oceniłbym na takie 3,5/5, ale przez niską średnią na Goodreads naciągam do 4 gwiazdek.

[MaRysia (ostatnia_strona) · Rating 4 out of 5]

Seria „bez tabu” wydawnictwa format to może duże, pozytywne zaskoczenie. Bardzo ciekawa książka. Porusza ważny temat jakim jest transpłciowość, a z podziękowań na końcu można wywnioskować, że historia zawarta inspirowana była prawdziwymi postaciami. To jest ogromny plus, bo możemy poznać myśli i przeżycia takiej osoby, jak z jej perspektywy przebiega cały proces adaptacji do nowej rzeczywistości.

[Vivone Os · Rating 4 out of 5]

DRUGO ČITANJE
I pri drugom čitanju sam uživala. Čak još malo više nego prošli put. Uočila sam neke detalje koje prvi put nisam, prisjetila sam se događaja koje sam u međuvremenu zaboravila. Isprva mi je bilo malo teško vratiti se u te emocije koji sam doživjela prvi put, ali sam se brzo uljuljkala u osjećaj zime, snježnih oluja, krckanja snijega pod nogama, osjeta hladnoće na -20, izoliranosti. Ovaj put sam i guglala gdje je to Ardeche područje. U isto vrijeme bih voljela doživjeti njihovu zimu, ali vjerojatno samo na kratko, ne stalno živjeti tamo.
I opet mi se svidjelo to preplitanje priča, iako u nekim trenucima nisam kužila gdje je prijelaz iz prošlosti u sadašnjost pa sam se morala vraćati natrag i ponovo čitati.
Adele, ona mi je i dalje nepoznanica. Pretpostavljam da su njeni osjećaji i njeno ponašanje proizašli iz svega što joj se dogodilo u životu. Najteže je nerazumijevanje i odbacivanje od strane obitelji koja ti treba biti najveća podrška dok i sam ne znaš što bi sa sobom, svojim osjećajima i tijelom. Sad nekako shvaćam da se totalno pronašla u svojoj ulozi pa čak bih rekla „majke“ toj djeci koju vozi, s toliko nježnosti priča o njima. Moja djeca. Moja velika djeca. Moja mala djeca.
Mogla bih ju sad opet čitati.
Book Club Osijek 2023 – 7 (ja)
Globalni ciljevi: autor s neengleskog govornog područja, s moje police

PRVO ČITANJE
Zaista mi je teško opisati ovu knjigu. Bojim se da nemam dovoljno adekvatne riječi. Ukratko, priču nam priča Adele, žena koja se rodila kao muško, ali bila je jako nesretna kao dječak/mladić pa je čim je mogla promijenila spol. Knjiga je u isto vrijeme teška i tužna (pomalo i morbidna povremeno), ali je nekako i lagana, čak i pozitivna. Ne znam kako to bolje opisati. Kroz knjigu se izmjenjuju priče iz Adelinog djetinjstva sa sadašnjošću u kojoj je ona vozačica školskog autobusa i djecu vozi divljim predjelima u svakakvim vremenskim uvjetima. Upoznajemo djecu, otkriva nam se i Adelin odnos s mlađim bratom, sve nevolje, nerazumijevanje i dvojbe, tugu, borbu i razočaranja koja je prošla u životu. Kroz Adelinu priču, autorica opisuje život u zimi toliko dugoj, hladnoj i surovoj da si ju ne mogu ni zamisliti. Stilski je knjiga baš divna, nježna, nema pravih dijaloga, samo se povremeno provlače kroz pripovijedanje. Opisi su zaista lijepi, pogotovo opisi prirode i vremenskih prilika. Nisam imala baš neka očekivanja i ugodno sam se iznenadila jer mi se knjiga svidjela.

Bookopoly Lowest rated

[Trevor · Rating 3 out of 5]

This was not the story that I was expecting, having said that though, I did enjoy the story, though I think it has been let down by it's translation.

Told in both flashbacks and a continuing narrative, it is on occasions difficult to tell at what point in history you are - is it the present, the past or the deep past?

The point around which the story revolves is revealed early in the story to the reader, though only at the end to the other characters in the story, this takes away some of the suspense and intrigue.

As I mentioned at the start of my review, I think the translation has let this story down.

I was given a copy of the story by the publisher in exchange for an honest review.

[Caelan Meredith · Rating 2 out of 5]

This was actually so disappointing. It had a massive lead up that was boring and then when her secret (that she was trans) was revealed it was super anti-climatic and then the novel just ended. not worth it :(

[Fra · Rating 5 out of 5]

Lo stile di scrittura rende il libro un unico grande flusso che scorrendo ci mostra la vita della protagonista, intrecciata a tante altre storie. Passato, presente e futuro sono narrati insieme, intrecciati, ma non si crea confusione.
Alla fine il cerchio si chiude congiungendo tutti i piccoli puntini che hanno fatto parte della storia.

[Alex · Rating 1 out of 5]

Oh I HATED this. I felt very uncomfortable with the author’s description of Adele’s relationship with her brother (vaguely incestuous) and the kids she drives in her school bus (vaguely creepy in the sense that she thinks she is like them, feels as if she is their age, observes them too closely, thinks about their love lives).

I think my discomfort was made even worse by the fact that this seems to be supposed to be a story about a trans woman and her comfort with herself and her “second birth”. The way the relationships were described bordered on predatory, and mixed with the main character being trans, a lot of it felt almost like anti-trans rhetoric.

I can understand what the author was doing in showing Adele’s obsession with the young girls on her bus, because Adele herself had never experienced adolescence as a girl. It just felt mishandled, misguided, and rather creepy.

I also got exceptionally bored of all the ways the landscape was described. I think I am not one for flowery, descriptive language because it bored the shit out of me. I’m not sure how often I can read about the texture of snow or the depth of the lake before it’s time for me to move on. If the book had been sold to me as a very long poem, it would have honestly made more sense. I will acknowledge that this may have been the fault of the English translator rather than the French writer.

The story was very loose and it was difficult to tell when we were reflecting on a past event and when we were in the present.

This book has done nothing to help my prejudice against the French and their pretentiousness.

[Ru · Rating 3 out of 5]

"I came to understand myself as a girl through my big little brother's punches. He was Davy Crockett and I was everything else: the trees, the beavers, the solitude, the peat bog lapped by the river."

AH this book, THIS BOOK! The prose, the writing style, I loved it so much, it was so so good. I consumed this book at such a fast pace oh my golly. Albeit, with Adèle's meandering 'wander' through her life, her contemplations during her bus rides on how she got to where she is now, were sometimes a bit hard to follow in terms of timelines and not knowing when one part (of her life) would end and another part would begin. I also - it might be because of the translations to English - found some of the ways in which she described her brother a bit... strange. But alas, I still fell deeply in love with the nonchalant, detached sense of narrative and the descriptions. It seemed very sped up and summarised, but with the way the story was written, as a sort of train of thought, it didn't ruin it. So yes, complaints and etc. but they can be overlooked for the sheer beauty of the writing.

[Lisa Bentley · Rating 2 out of 5]

One Day I’ll Tell You Everything is a curious little story about a trans woman called Adele and how she tries to keep the details of her transition secret in the small mountainous town that she lives in.

With a quick sum up of the story you can understand why I was curious to read it. I was sold on the premise but the delivery was all a bit wonky for me. The main action of the book took place in the final 20% of the book. Whereas if the author had spaced it out and flashed backwards and forwards throughout then the tension of the story would have built more evenly rather than slow slow slow slow slow fast fast the end. 

I did like how the author used the metaphor of being trapped as similar to Adele’s situation. That was cleverly done. However, the overall power of the book was lost because of the strange pacing.

One Day I’ll Tell You Everything by Emmanuelle Pagano is available 24th September 2020.

[Anastasiaadamov · Rating 3 out of 5]

Book club reading for November 2023.
Weird and thankfully short book.
The flowery and bloody rural descriptions got me swinging between thoughtful and disgusted.,
Some memorable descriptions will take time and effort to forget.

I am not sure how I feel about the connections between birthing process and the sexual identity of the main character. It was all so very visceral and bloody.
For someone who is not in constant communication with children and teenagers most of the book was to weird and to far removed to understand completely.

[Louise · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5/5

[Bookygirls Magda · Rating 5 out of 5]

4,5

[Eléa Le Cardinal · Rating 2 out of 5]

Je n'ai pas pu finir ce livre...chose que je ne fais que très rarement.
L'écriture ne fait pas accrocher, l'histoire non plus malgré les sujets abordés qui eux sont très intéressants

[Jennifer (JC-S) · Rating 4 out of 5]

‘I cried a lot when I was little, often, and I didn’t know why.’

Adèle returns home, to the village where she grew up in the Ardèche mountains in South-east France, after an absence of ten years. She has returned to drive the school bus, transporting the school children the long distances they now must travel to attend school. Adèle believes that no-one recognises her: the person who left the village is not the one who has returned. She is home.

‘Once again, the landscape has filled up my whole being. My countryside is contained within me.’

Adèle has a past, and part of her story will unfold in this novel. There is the story of two siblings, Alex, and his older sister Adèle, who was once his brother. Alex is angry with Adèle: he misses his big brother and refuses to acknowledge he has a sister. Can Alex accept Adèle? Adèle, the bus driver, knows each of the children she is responsible for on the bus. She watches them grow, sees their struggles, feels responsible for them. And then, one day, the bus is stranded by a snowstorm. Adèle and the students take shelter in a cave. To pass the time, they talk. One of the students starts to reveal Adèle’s history.

‘And he begins to tell the story of my life.’

Right at that moment, I caught my breath. How will the students react to Adèle’s story? Will they still accept her? Or has she been accepted already? Adèle is concerned: both her standing in the community and a developing relationship are at stake. By this stage in the novel Adèle and her struggles have become real: I want her to find happiness, I want her to find a place where she is accepted for who she is.

Ms Pagano’s novel deals sensitively with several of the issues that arise when someone transitions from one gender to another. Relationships with family, acceptance in the community often change because of the way in which we define people according to their gender, rather than considering their humanity.

‘So there you go, I say, it’s the night of revelations.’

This novel was first published in 2006 as ‘Les Adolescents Troglodytes’ and won the European Union Prize for Literature in 2009. Fortunately, it is now available in English.

Note: My thanks to NetGalley and Text Publishing for providing me with a free electronic copy of this book for review purposes.

Jennifer Cameron-Smith

[Jenny · Rating 2 out of 5]

I was really looking forward to reading this book as it had had such good reviews. Very disappointed. I found it to be a bit disjointed and repetitive. Though I acknowledge that some of what I felt was repetition was aiming to create atmosphere, I did find it a bit annoying that the technique was used all the way through the book. I also either missed something significant - the meeting of
the siblings after a long estrangement - or it simply wasn't recounted: suddenly the 2 characters together. If the book had really engaged me I would have gone back to reread to see if I had missed something but I couldn't be bothered. I kept reading in case in the toing and froing of time I might have picked it up.

[Диляна Георгиева · Rating 3 out of 5]

Всичко френско е извратено.
И ако това по принцип не е вярно, то тук е много вярно. С допълнението, че често ми се струва самоцелно извратено особено в литературата.
В кратките страници на тази книжка не успях да свикна с хладния стил на авторката, който обаче отлично се слива с разказваната история.
Не е като да няма какво да си вземеш от "Юношите от пещерата", накрая дори ти става леко приятно, защото си започнал да симпатизираш, но това е най-дълбокото чувство, до което може да те докара тази книга.

[Text Publishing]

The following book reviews have been shared by Text Publishing – publisher of One Day I'll Tell You Everything

‘One Day I’ll Tell You Everything is a sumptuous read. My senses were set alight—I could feel the sun, smell the air, taste the snow. At its heart lies the story of Adele—a woman who is at once fleeing, and reconciling with, her past. It is Adele who gives the book its pulse. Every page thrums with her love.’
Melanie Cheng

[Sue · Rating 3 out of 5]

I suppose I expected more from this novel after reading the synopsis. Yes it is very descriptive but honestly I felt cheated as the highlights of the book are in the last 30 pages and then suddenly the books ended. I wanted a more complete ending rather than the one provided.

Anyway if your thing is enjoying the descriptive writing that powers your imagination, this book will give you that. If you want something with a strong story, well this book may let you done.

[J.E. Rowney · Rating 1 out of 5]

This could have been an interesting, enlightening book, but instead it was clunky and dull. As this is a translation, I believe that it could have been the fault of the translator rather than the author that the language flows badly and the narrative is confusing. I can’t say for sure though, not having read the original!

[Milan]

Simpatična pričica.
Ništa epohalno, ali lepo, intimno, otvoreno...

[Nikoloz Dvali · Rating 3 out of 5]

ზოგადად ქვიარ მწერლების პირად გამოცდილებაზე დაწერილი ნაწარმოებები ყოველთვის საინტერესოა ჩემთვის და ვაფასებ, როგორიც არ უნდა იყოს. ამ კონკრეტულზე ვერ ვიტყვი რომ რამე განსაკუთრებული ან განსხვავებული წავიკითხე, მაგრამ მაინც ღირს წაკითხვად. მგონია რომ ავტორს ძალიან ბევრი რაღაცის დაწერა უნდოდა და წერის დროს ცოტა აირია, ყველაფერი ჩაყარა და რაღაცებს დასრულება აკლდა, ეს ორ დროშიც წერა მჰმ, ვერ გამოვიდა ისეთი როგორიც უნდა ყოფილიყო, დროებში აქეთ-იქით დახტოდა სულ და ცოტა დამღლელია მაგ მხრივ. ბევრ პრობლემას ეხება რომელსაც უბრალოდ ახსენებს და არ ამთავრებს, ახალგაზრდა ქვიარები ზუსტად იმ სოფელში სადაც თვითონ გაიზარდა, ერთ მომენტში ახსენა და აღარც დაბრუნებია მაგ თემას, ან ბუნებრივი რესურსების განადგურება სოფელში. ოჯახური წინააღმდეგობებიდანაც მხოლოდ თავის ძმის დამოკიდებულებაზე იყო სრულყოფილად ნახსენები, დანარჩენები გაკვრით დაწერილი. თავისი გენდერული იდენტობის აღმოჩენაზეც უფრო მეტი მინდოდა. რაც არის კი კარგია, უბრალოდ არასაკმარისი. უსაქმურობის რამდენიმე საათი სასიამოვნოდ გავატარე.

[Karol Kollinger · Rating 5 out of 5]

Podróże autobusem szkolnym z punktu widzenia prowadzącej go Adèle, trans kobiety, która po operacji korekty płci wróciła w rodzinne strony. W ich trakcie poznajemy jej historię i pasażerów oraz górskie trasy w regionie Ardèche we Francji, jakie musiała codziennie pokonać. Gdy uwięzione wraz z nią w jaskini dzieci poznają prawdę o Adèle, przed nami odkryta zostaje tajemnica tytułu powieści. Wszystko przedstawione w niezwykle subtelny, niemal poetycki sposób.

"I postanowię tu zostać, bo jestem u siebie [...] Sylvain ma rację, są tu nie tylko naziole. Będą mnie wspierać jego matka wiedźma, inne rodziny, niekoniecznie te, po których bym się tego mogła spodziewać. "

Europejska Nagroda Literacka 2009

Polecam!

[Ronan The Librarian · Rating 3 out of 5]

Adele still seems to be haunted by fragments of her former life. She seems to be happy with who she is but every so often we get flashes into her past. The fear of people realising who she was is ever present and it feels like Adéle is still not truly free. At the end of the story it feels like a relief when the kids know her past but it's no big deal like it should not be.

We don't know if things will get better for Adéle and whether this small rural community could accept her, including Tony, but I hope they do. I think some of the power of the book may have been lost in translation and I did find the flow slightly broken at times. An okay book, but not a great book in my opinion.

[Aj · Rating 1 out of 5]

The only positive thing I have to say about this was that it was brief.

The writing was overblown, although this may partially be the fault of the translator. The depictions of the environment invoked nothing in me but boredom. The plot was non-existent, the romance non-existent, the characterisation non-existent.

The depiction of the trans themes was cringworthy at best. I was also put off by the vaguely incestuous relationship between Adele and her brother.

[Bookowa · Rating 4 out of 5]

3,75 ⭐

Od początku książka wydała mi się wręcz taka poetycka, co pokochałam. Cieszę się, że mogłam ją przeczytać. Dałam jej wysoką poprzeczkę przez opis, dlatego może w niektórych miejscach byłam lekko zawiedziona, zwłaszcza zakończeniem...

[Наташа Алексовска]

Аксел и Адела сираци, на коишто мајка им одамна им почина, а татко им живее во пензионерски дом. Двајцата ќе заминат во град. Но, каква судбина понатаму ќе ги зададе животот? Како ќе влијае одлуката на Адела врз нејзин брат? Дали ќе се откри вистината за тоа која е всушност Адела?

[Sarah · Rating 2 out of 5]

I wanted to like it, but agree that the translation made this a bit clunky and this affected my ability to become immersed in the story. I feel like it would have been beautifully written originally.

[Alaska Young · Rating 2 out of 5]

1.8

[backtobook · Rating 3 out of 5]

3,5

[Lazar Lukić · Rating 3 out of 5]

2.5 ⭐️