“Everything is fine”, Vlad-le-Bad takes it for his tale – Liberation

2023-06-07 14:46:41

A novel by Xavier-Laurent Petit which invites us to understand the war in Ukraine and exile.

Each week, “Liberation” reviews the news of the youth book

“If the wolf was there, it would eat us” is one of those childish ritornellos sung by old Babusja, who no longer has all her head. These few notes were not necessarily appreciated by his daughter, double bass player, and his son-in-law, pianist, but quickly became a support in these times of war. It begins on February 24 – at the wedding of Oksana, the narrator’s sister – with explosions. A village was targeted, administrative buildings were destroyed and civilians killed. The shots get carried away, once the soldiers of Vlad-le-Bad are posted near Pytominsk. Nastja, the narrator, is not very old but understands the urgency when she sees her sister grabbing her lieutenant’s helmet and her father, a member of the “Territorial Defense”, his Kalashnikov. Funny instrument for a pianist, she thinks. Aunt Dasha, cigarette in the corner of her lips, also gets down to it: she prepares Molotov cocktails in her kitchen because, she is convinced, “We’re going to win this filth. And Vlad-le-Bad will end up in his underpants”.

This famous evening, Nastja would like to speak to the neighbor opposite, Kamila. She would like to know how her friend is doing, if she was able to dodge the bullets and shrapnel. No answer, direct forwarding to answering machine. She has no choice but to flee to the west with her family and leave her childhood and Kamila in the middle of their gutted building. Worry is part of the trip and circulates among the different characters: her father fears for his eldest daughter who has gone to the front with her husband. His «TVB» – acronym for “everything is fine” – are rare from the middle of the novel. “And believe me, when it comes to war, I know about it!” asks his aunt before closing the door after their departure – and since then, no news.

“No one knows what will happen to us”

Despite the subject, sweetness seems to permeate the novel by Xavier-Laurent Petit, children’s author and former school principal. An invitation made possible by the music. As they walk, strangers join their group – the double bass follows, either crammed into the trunk of the Dacia or carried at arm’s length above a river. “We took bombs in the corner of the mouth all night long, we are freezing and no one knows what will happen to us. We need a little beauty.” So his mother, waddling from one foot to the other, grabs her instrument and plucks the lowest strings to take over a song by Mix, a young exile like them. “Vlad-the-Bad […] You’re not Capone, not even Stallone, / you’re just Vlad-the-Bad, / you’re done, you’re done again, you’re out, / amazed your army is so defeated, / it’s your defeat that we celebrate…” The whistle of the bullets is covered by this jerky rhythm and these cutting words which are born from chaos.

In March 2022, Xavier-Laurent Petit meets a class of college students. It all started from there, from these young Ukrainians who came to take refuge in Saint-Nazaire. Some have left everything, others find their fathers, workers in the shipyard. The writer is not attached to facts but to personalities because “even imaginary, their intertwined destinies are deeply rooted in reality”.

Xavier-Laurent Petit, Everything’s good, the “Medium” Leisure School, 128 pp., 12.50 euros. From 11 years old.