ENGLISH GIRL ON A BICYCLE
It all starts with a massacre of Native Americans in South Dakota in 1890. Jayson Flannery, an English photographer who misses his homeland, takes in a three year-old girl whose mother was killed in the massacre. Of course he means to leave Emily in an orphanage as he will soon be on a liner heading for England, but he will not be travelling alone: he decides to take Emily back from the nuns who have taken her under their wing.
The two of them end up in the Yorkshire manor house where Jayson has lived all his life. Emily grows up, goes to school and learns to read. Everyone in the village has their own ideas and questions to ask about her. Did Jayson adopt her or kidnap her? Will someone come looking for her one day? A policeman makes his own enquiries, stubbornly, obstinately searching for Emily’s true origins. Jayson soon realises that if he wants to give his Native American Emily a true identity and therefore some papers and therefore a social standing, he has no choice but to marry her. It will be an impressive wedding and will put an end to all suspicions, including the policeman’s.
Emily longed for a horse but among her wedding presents she finds a bicycle. Jayson could never have guessed how much this gift would change Emily’s fate. At first she bicycles for hours on end, then days, then whole nights. At the furthest extent of her travels, she makes an extraordinary discovery: two little girls in a far-off village claim they commune with fairies on the banks of a river. Everyone wants to believe them, not least Emily. The girls’ father, also a photographer, asks his children for photographic proof of their claims. The girls do as they are told and bring back five astonishing images. The village where Emily grew up had its doubts about her true identity, now all of England will be divided into believers and non-believers on the subject of fairies. In an England embarking on the wild years that followed the First World War lives an ageing Sir Arthur Conan Doyle who takes comfort in a passionate obsession with spiritualism. This fantastical story about fairies comes at the perfect time in his life. He believes it utterly and completely, will make it his last great cause, and will take Emily with him on his mission to protect the little girls’ truth and their lies.
Sadly, there is always a truth but sometimes it is better kept quiet.
From Abraham de Brooklyn to John l’Enfer, from La femme de chambre du Titanic to Est-ce ainsi que les femmes meurent?, Didier Decoin’s readers are always plunged headlong into a storybook world that is sometimes wild and always universal. This inevitably reductive summary of his latest book manages to convey the fact that English Girl on a Bicycle harbours a thousand other secrets and a thousand other riches. We are a whole century further on, and yet today we find the same creatures, the same illusions and the same torments.
Didier Decoin is a scriptwriter and author whose most noted publications include Abraham de Brooklyn (1971 Prix des Libraires), John l’Enfer (1977 Prix Goncourt) and, for Stock, Jésus le Dieu qui riait (1999) and Henri ou Henry, le roman de mon père (2006).
On les retrouve tous les deux dans un manoir du Yorkshire où Jayson a toujours vécu. Emily grandit, va à l’école, apprend à lire. Tous dans le village se posent mille questions à son sujet. Jayson l’a-t-il adoptée, kidnappée ? Viendra-t-on un jour la chercher ? Un policier mène son enquête, s’obstine et s’entête à rechercher les véritables origines d’Emily. Jayson comprend bientôt que, s’il veut donner une véritable identité à son Indienne d’Emily et donc des papiers et donc une appartenance sociale, il n’a d’autre choix que celui de l’épouser. Le mariage sera grandiose et mettra fin à la suspicion de tous, y compris celle du policier.
Emily rêvait d’un cheval, dans sa corbeille de noces elle trouve une bicyclette. Jayson ne pouvait imaginer que ce cadeau de mariage allait changer la destinée d’Emily. Elle commence par rouler pendant des heures, puis pendant des jours, puis pendant des nuits. Au terme de ses randonnées, elle fait une découverte spectaculaire : deux fillettes de quatorze et seize ans dans un village lointain prétendent fréquenter des fées au bord d’une rivière. Tout le monde a envie de les croire, Emily la première. Le père des jeunes filles, lui aussi photographe, demande à ses enfants de photographier la preuve de ce qu’elles avancent. Les fillettes s’exécutent et rapportent cinq clichés stupéfiants. Le village où a grandi Emily avait des doutes sur sa véritable identité, l’Angleterre toute entière va se diviser en croyants et non-croyants de l’existence des fées. Dans cette Angleterre qui entre dans les années folles de l’après-Première Guerre mondiale vieillit Sir Conan Doyle, qui se console et se passionne jusqu’à l’obsession pour le spiritisme. Cette fabuleuse histoire de fées tombe si bien dans sa vie. Il y croira dur comme fer, en fera son dernier combat et entraînera Emily dans la protection de la vérité et des mensonges des petites filles.
Hélas, il y a toujours une vérité, aussi parfois vaut-il mieux la taire.