
- June 17, 2022
L'empreinte - Story - Alexandre Marzano-Lesnevich - Sonatine, 2019
As a Harvard law student opposed to the death penalty, Alex Marzano-Lesnevich finds herself defending a young man accused of murdering a little boy. As the case progresses, her convictions waver: the man should be executed. The lawyer gradually realizes that her own family history brings her closer to the case: she too was a victim of sexual abuse. A young jurist finds herself confronted with what looks like absolute evil: the murder of a child by a young man driven by pedophilic impulses. This case brings the author face to face with her own past, that of a child incested by her grandfather, protected by a suffocating family denial. Throughout the story, she constantly retraces the history of the accused and the murdered child, as well as her own, all three victims of child abuse. This autobiographical and journalistic account is rich in reflection and intellectual honesty. The author looks back on episodes of anorexia, somatization and dissociation. She also explores the protagonists' tormented and painful pasts, and dissects the mechanisms of family and societal denial. This strong, rigorous and uncompromising story is nonetheless full of empathy. It reads like a criminal investigation and raises important questions, including the implicit complicity of family and society in sexual abuse, judicial dysfunction and the silence imposed on victims. A book of courage.
- Book