THE AWAKENINGLine Papin “I must return there, it is unbearable knowing him to be here, he who lives and breathes close by. No, it is not about the awakening, about reality, it is purely my attention that he arouses for the time being. It is down below, further away, that we are going to bloom, to fall, to move. It excites me, it irritates me. I am on the verge of the awakening, the verge of the awakening.”
The scene is set in Hanoi, in the alleyways of that overheated city. It could be said that the story is not important. It touches every one of us. It could be today, yesterday, even a long time ago. It is a universal story that is told and retold. The protagonists are two girls and two boys whose ages, faces, idiosyncrasies and tenderness are revealed little by little. It is also an initiation even if they seem to have already experienced so much and yet so little.
This is a love story, fragile and strong, painful and sensual where the heroines only face the town’s tumult, drunk on sour wine, and hide in the protective bedroom shadows.
Line Papin was born in Hanoi on the 30th of December, 1995. She is currently studying for a degree in Art History in Paris, after studying Literature. The Awakening is her first novel.