" Where is this hole I hear about ? "

Arkadi Renko, Martin Cruz-Smith's favorite character, is confronted, novel after novel, to different kinds of attractive, dangerous or vibrant women. Even if none of them could compare to his true and late lover, Irina. In "Stalin's ghost", Arkadi has to fight Tanya, a highly good-looking, multi-talented blonde : harpist, pole-dancer, and killer, possibly . Extract : Arkadi meets Tanya again, in an exotic bar in Kver, a russian walla-walla, long after she tried to kill him with a steel wire and after he was shot in the head by a disturbed man. A dangerous life he's got, Arkadi.

" Tanya and a peppy little dancer were up next. The first time he had seen Tanya she was in a white evening gown strumming the harp at the Metropol. In little more than the flesh she was even more in control, with a cool smile and long strides that prompted rhytmic clapping at ringside...

Tanya was sex-wrapped around a pole, with a slow head-down slither that seemed to swallow brass. The other dancer swung around her pole like a dynamo, which seemed quaintly Soviet. "Tanya had classical training for the ballet, but she grew too big for the men to catch." Urman turned to Arkady. "Well, you've wrestled her, you know." Pacheco's ears perked up. "Wrestled? That sounds interesting." "We had a special moment," Arkady said...

Tany slid off the runway, ignored her ringside regulars and climbered onto Arkadi's lap, where she breathed heavily and stamped him with sweat and powder. She kissed him af is they were lovers reunited and when he tried to ease her off she clung to his neck. "Where is this hole I hear about ? Is it the size of a bottle cap ?" She pressed herself against his face while she felt his scalp. All that remainded of his operation were drain scars, but she found them. If Arkady had humiliated her, she would humiliate him. "

Martin Cruz-Smith : "Stalin's ghost" - Pan Books - ISBN 978-0-330-44857-4

Photo : Keith Hartwell

The hollow woman - La femme creuse

Dans son roman "Wolves eat dogs" (Chiens et Loups), Martin Cruz-Smith met en scène Eva Kazan, médecin dans la Zone d'exclusion de la centrale de Tchernobyl. Autrefois, pour son plus grand malheur, enfant présente à la grande parade du 1er mai 1986 à Kiev, 5 jours après l'explosion de la centrale. Une évocation des nombreux habitants d'Ukraine et surtout de Biélorussie contaminés pour des générations, dans l'indifférence de la communauté internationale, européenne, notamment.

Eva said, "Every once in a while I remember this thirteen-year-old girl parading on May Day with her idiotic smile. She's moved out of the village to Kiev to live with her aunt and uncle so she can go to a special school for dance;their standards are rigid, but she's been measured and weighed and has the right build. She has been selected to hold a banner that says, 'Marching into the Radiant Future!' She is so pleased the day is warm enough not to wear a coat. The young body is a wonder of growth, the division of cells produces virtually a new person. And on this day she will be a new person, because a haze comes over the sun, a breeze from Chornobyl. And so ends her days of dancing and begins her acquaintanceship with Soviets surgery." She touched the scar. "First the thyroid and then the tumors. That's how you know a true citizen of the Zone. We fuck without worries. I'm a hollow woman; you can beat me like a drum. Still, once in a while, I remember this fatuous girl and am so ashamed oh her stupidity that if I could go back in time with a gun, I would shoot her myself. When this feeling overcomes me, I go to the nearest hole or black house and hide. There are enough black houses that is never a problem. Otherwise, I have nothing to fear...

Eva dit : "Je me souviens parfois de cette fille de treize ans qui parade le 1er mai avec un sourire béat. Elle a quitté son village, rejoint son oncle et sa tante à Kiev pour suivre les cours de l'écoles de danse; leurs critères sont rigides, mais elle a été pesée, mesurée et elle a la bonne carrure. On l'a choisie pour porter la bannière "Marchons vers un futur radieux! ". La journée est assez douce pour se passer de veste, et elle en est heureuse. Son jeune corps est une merveille de croissance, la division des cellules y élabore un être nouveau. Et, de fait, ce jour-là, elle va devenir une autre, car une brume voile le ciel, portée par la brise en provenance de Tchernobyl. Ainsi s'achèvent ses jours de danseuse et commence sa longue relation avec la chirurgie soviétique." Elle toucha sa cicatrice. "D'abord la thyroîde, puis les tumeurs. C'est à celà que tu reconnais les véritables citoyens de la Zone. Nous baisons sans soucis. Je suis une femme creuse; tu pourrais me battre comme un tambour. De temps à autre, je me souviens de cette fille futile... j'ai tellement honte de sa stupidité; si je pouvais revenir dans le passé avec un révolver, je la tuerais sans hésiter. Quand ce sentiment me suffoque, je vais me cacher dans un trou ou la maison condamnée la plus proche. Il y a tant de maisons contaminées... j'ai le choix. Autrement, je ne redoute rien ...

traduit par l'auteur de ce blog

Martin Cruz-Smith - Wolves eat dogs (Pan Books) - Chiens et loups (Robert Laffont)