My first Emmanuel Carrère book, V13: Chronicle of a Trial, has made me an instant convert. The esteemed author asked to be commissioned to write weekly about the sensational, grueling nine-month-long 2021-2022 trial in Paris of fourteen defendants of the horrific multi-location terrorist attack in 2015 that killed 130 and maimed hundreds. He missed very few days of the court sessions and grew to know many of the plaintiffs, lawyers, and even defendants. At the start of the book, the author’s plain, smooth, open-hearted style suggests the book will miss something vital about the case’s dramas or themes but great skill is at play. The reader becomes drawn in, until the feeling is of sitting on the author’s shoulder. Whilst never downplaying the dumb savagery of the attackers’ motives and tactics, he manages to draw each of the fourteen as an individual. Tragedies upon tragedies, either for survivors or families of the dead, are sketched with wonderful empathy. As we approach the climax of the judge’s verdicts and sentences, washes of emotion flood the court, including Carrère, who writes that what he anticipated as a “vain, colossal judicial spectacle,” instead morphed into something much more: “No: this was something else: a unique experience of horror, pity, proximity and presence.” V13: Chronicle of a Trial is a gently riveting and brave nonfiction chronicle that reminded me of Helen Garner at her best; I can offer no greater recommendation.
Book, movie/show, and album reviews
