In this essay at the crossroads of the personal and the political, the writer juxtaposes her own experiences and grief with the works and ideas of Flaubert, Camus, Stachura, Byung-Chul Han, and others, thus restoring to her devastating actions and death drives their “belonging to the realm of the sayable,” to the “domain of knowledge,” patiently reconstructing her agency. Anne-Frédérique Hébert-Dolbec, LeDevoir (January 2026)
Halfway through personal narrative, literary reflection, and socio-historical analysis, Les eaux glacées de l’Isar explores the question of voluntary death by connecting a personal investigation into the author’s suicide attempts, a remembrance of her loved ones who have passed away, and real or fictional figures haunted, like her, by this idea, from Flaubert to Édouard Louis to Bernanos.
Devoid of any pathos, Marina Girardin’s essay tackles traumatic memories and institutional silence, as well as prevention, while offering lively, comprehensive and passionate reflections to understand how words can emerge from experience and how writing can continue to support them.
Les eaux glacées de l’Isar is a necessary, demanding, informed, and formally successful contribution—one that is destined to find an important place in the current intellectual landscape.
“I wanted to trace the thread of the times I broke down, not only to bear witness to what it means to reach the threshold of the ultimate night and to reach out to those who came back–my neighbours in darkness–but also to escape that call. Managing to build that haunting feeling with words, to lead it beyond language; wouldn’t that allow me to have some grip on it? I tell myself that from the moment it’s committed to paper, it won’t watch for me from within: I’ll be the one observing and holding the reins, taming the beast.”