Alexandre Friederich

Ogrorog

«October – I left my house and set out on my way. When the sky clears in the east, I sniff. I lean my bike against the embankment wall and rinse out my neckerchief, my gloves, my eyes. In Puthiers, a grinder turns, the rain hammers down. A Black Man from the islands steps down from the back of a small truck.»

Some like to travel on foot, but Alexandre Friederich prefers his bicycle. In his short, charming novel 'Ogrorog' he recounts a cycling tour across France, from the Jura mountains to the Atlantic coast, beginning in a small village in the Department of Ain, southwest of Geneva, and ending in Gers, in the Midi-Pyrénées region of southern France.

The important thing is not the destination, but the journey itself, which takes him through regions that are often wet, noisy, and at times simply unpleasant. It is autumn. The travelling cyclist is en route through open countryside, among animals and nature, often chatting to the people he meets along the way. In the villages, he asks for bread or a place to spend the night, leading to experiences both pleasant and unpleasant. His journey is always full of suprises. Throughout 'Ogrorog', Alexandre Friederich shows his talent for detailed observation.

The proximity of nature inspires him to reflect on the urbanisation of the landscape and the steady spread of suburban sprawl, prompted by the changing state of the forest, which he explores on this cycling tour: "I want to see where it is. Whether it is. Each time I find a forest, I will visit it, trespass through it." The forest – which "begins where the city ends, where politics ends" – has always been a place for society's outsiders, a place of refuge.

(Martin Zingg, trans. by Marcy Goldberg)

Recommended for translation by the Swiss Art Council Pro Helvetia:
12 Swiss Books

Editions des Sauvages, Geneva 2011

ISBN: 978-2-9700583-7-3