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Sylvain Trudel:Le Souffle de l’harmattan (The Harmattan Winds)
Our hero/narrator is Hugues, though we do not know his name till nearly halfway through the book. He was abandoned by his mother in a supermarket shopping trolley left in the bulrushes, though he is no Moses. Celine Francoeur spotted him as she was driving by and rescued him. Celine was recently married to Claude. Both felt that adopting him was an excellent way of avoiding morning sickness and miscarriages so they adopted him. They did, however go on to have children of their own, a boy and a girl, though they play a very small role in this book.
Hugues is clearly not their biological child as he has almond eyes and will be nicknamed the Chinaman when he goes to school.
Celine and Claude have not told Hugues that he is adopted but he overhears them talking about it. When he is older, they are watching TV. It is a programme about adopted children looking for their birth parents. Claude swiftly changes channels but it is too late. Hugues make a huge fuss and Claude, furious at this behaviour, strikes him and calls him goddam little bastard. From that time he considers his adoptive family as his semi-family and he himself an orphan.
There are two people who have a major influence on him. The first is Gustave Desuet. (desuet means outdated.) Desuet is a deceased poet.Hugues had come across his book of poems and uses it almost as his bible. Desuet was of the view that the Apocalypse was already happening and we were living in it. Hugues will quote from the book throughout the novel. I will only say that I do not share Hugues’ views as to Desuet’s talents.
The other major influence on him is Habeke Axoum. As you can tell from his name, Habeke is Ethiopian. He has been adopted by a Canadian couple, M. and Mme. Godin. Monsieur Godin had problems with plumbing. The poor man didn’t have fish active enough to sow Madame Godin’s Great Lakes. Hugues will first meet him at school. Habeke is racially abused by a group Hugues calls them cannibals but Habeke defends himself well. Hugues, a fellow outcast takes to him immediately and they soon become fast friends.
Partially under the influence of Desuet, Hugues tends to use flowery language in his narration and this is now enhanced under the influence of Habeke. Habeke was himself an empire of elixirs… He walked, his head full with charred landscapes and human shadows. For Habeke, Africa and his ancestors are nearby. He sees his ancestors or items that, in his view, clearly belonged to them.The pair grow closer and even have a marriage ceremony, mixing their blood and burning Mme Godin’s casserole in the process. They have a series of adventures, including killing chickens to use the feathers so that they could fly. These adventures get them into trouble. “Parents are like that: if you ask them about their private life, you get a whack, but if you don’t answer when they ask you about your private life, you get an even harder whack.
There are other adventures. Because of Hugues’ possible Chinese ancestry, they decide to dig a hole to China. They even plan to cycle to Africa and set out early one morning. The spiny brush and locusts (grasshoppers) convince them they have arrived. TThey even find bones which are obviously the bones of Habeke’s ancestors. Not surprisingly these adventures do not succeed but nor do they deter the boys who simply indulge in more outlandish and, in our view, foolhardy projects.
There is a new girl at school, Odile, something of an outcast like them as her father left his wife for another woman. Both boys are attracted to her and she gets caught up in their adventures with almost disastrous results. Habeke ends up in hospital and the other two are injured. But still they are not deterred. There is a girl – Nathalie – in the hospital with Habeke who is dying of cancer. The doctors seem to think she cannot be saved but the boys disagree and hatch their own plan which turns out to be a step too far for Odile. Even after that fiasco they persist.
From our perspective we have to wonder about the two boys. As children many of us do things we do not want our parents to know about as they are foolhardy/risky/dangerous/illegal and so on. If caught we were in trouble. Eventually most of us (though not all) grow up and behave more responsibly. In the case of Hugues and Habeke they go well beyond the limits. Sometimes what they do such as cycling off to Africa seems frankly naive. Surely, even at their young age they know Africa is both a long way away and over the ocean? However it is their later exploit where we have to ask what is wrong with these boys? Yes, they are both orphans and clearly not close to their adoptive families and are seeking a cause and a place they can identify with, firstly under the influence of Desuet and secondly because of Habeke’s search for his African homeland. As the book sold well in Canada, we must assume that others identified with them but maybe in my old age I have become too much the responsible adult and could not help wonder whether they really would be so naive. Your views may well be different.
Publishing history
First published in 1986 by Quinze
Fitst English translation in 2025 by Archipelago
Translated by Donald Winkler