I was going to write a very different review of this book and then I read the postface and it left me sooo frustrated. But let me backtrack and hype you about this book first.

This novel is a sequel to Into the Forest, which was written 20 years ago and has left a deep impact on me. Jean Hegland’s prose is gorgeous and poignant, and it is just as powerful in this new novel. The funny thing is that it isn’t published in English yet. The French translation is the first time this book gets read. Ever. So thank you @editions_gallmeister for making it possible for us to read this gem.

Le Temps d’Après is about life after the collapse of civilisation, when humans have had time to adapt to this new world. We follow the slow, daily life of Burl and his two mothers Eva and Nell, who live alone in the Forest and have been careful not to cross paths with other humans. Their language has evolved, but one thing remains: their love of stories. And so, to Burl, other humans are no more real than Smaug or Don Quichotte. Each year, the three of them walk up to a clearing in the forest and light a bonfire. One year, Burl spots another fire in the distance.

This novel is really stunning. It is slow and takes its time weaving a picture of what human life could be in harmony with nature. Into the Forest was all about the two sisters losing what made their lives little by little, grieving but adapting. It was a rather anxious novel. Le Temps d’Après is a lot more peaceful. There is danger, of course, but life as it was before is but a distant memory and the characters have mostly adapted, treating nature with infinitely more respect than they used to. So all in all, it’s a really masterful novel that I heartily recommend.

And then I read the author’s postface in which she explains that the way Burl’s language had evolved included neutral pronouns. And despite the French translator’s fabulous job, this choice wasn’t translated into French. True, French is a heavily gendered language and it makes life very difficult for inclusive speech. But it’s not impossible, and my experience of the book would have been even better had the language been gender-neutral.

Personally, I don’t think the future will be binary. No matter how long it takes, I think we’ll shed binaries as something that might have served us in the past but that we are now better without. And so now I feel like I’m grieving what this book could have been. To be fair, it wouldn’t have changed the deep meaning of the story that I already resonate with. But there are so few novels in French with gender-neutral language that it would have meant even more for me.