In Nathacha Appanah's "Night in the Heart," two femicides and a "blind spot"

Chahinez Daoud, born in Algeria on March 3, 1990, died on May 4, 2021 in Mérignac (Gironde), murdered in the street by her husband, "MB." He was lying in wait for her, shot her in each leg to prevent her from continuing to run away, doused her with gasoline, and set her on fire. A year earlier, he tried to strangle her. She struggled. "Sometimes you have to stay calm and play dead. Sometimes you have to struggle, sometimes you have to run," writes Nathacha Appanah in Night in the Heart , which, like her previous book, Washed-Out Memory , is an investigation, not a novel. The narrative, self-reflexive and meditative, advances cautiously and in spirals, without weakening.

MB, morbidly jealous, is a seductive man whose violent past is unknown to anyone, except his ex-wife. Chahinez Daoud and he had a little boy together, whom he adores. She has two children from her previous marriage. She is divorced. The person Nathacha Appanah seeks to describe, to "reach," was a bold woman. But she would like to bring her eldest son, who remained in Algeria, to France. And MB uses this as a means of blackmail, playing with the power he has in