A world of secrets

Vikrant Parmar

Secret — a literary creation with these six letters embedded in its soul keeps the reader engaged, interested and yearning at all times. French-author Michel Bussi’s crime-thriller Nympheas Noirs, translated into English by Shaun Whiteside as Black Water Lilies, is a secret wrapped in an enigma. Till the denouement, it becomes a conundrum only the connoisseur can de-thread, ingest and applaud.  

Giverny, a sleepy French town where renowned artist Claude Monet made his famous painting ‘Water Lilies’, witnesses a gruesome murder; a rare blot on the otherwise idyllic place in Northern France that tourists thronged to admire the master artist’s works. His spirit, understandably, pervades the entire narrative; the mystic mill, the cafes, the schools; everything is imbued in impressionism, as Monet saw and recorded it on canvases that have cemented their place in the immortal club. 

As the investigation begins with inspector Laurenc Serenac and his wingman Sylvio Benavides, one is transported to the era of Hercule Poirot where crime was as silent as its retribution. The victim, Jerome Marvel, is found battered besides a stream that criss-crosses the town and drains into Monet’s lily pond. Marvel, ‘who doesn’t wear a watch’, and ‘lives by the rhythm of the sun, as Monet did’, was an art-lover nonpareil. Other than that, his escapades with women were an open secret. As a clue, the detectives find a postcard of Monet’s well-known painting ‘Water Lilies’ from the pocket of Marvel. Written on it are the words ‘Eleven years old. Happy Birthday’— Serenac and Benavides follow the lead, veer into all directions, yet the ‘secret’ evades them as well as the most clued-in reader. 

Thereon, the plot revolves around three women, ‘the first was mean, the second a liar and the third an egoist’. All three different, ‘but they had something in common, a secret’; the author neatly puts things into perspective in an uncomplicated, yet prophetic manner, at the very outset. While Fanette is an 11-year-old gifted artist, Stéphanie is a beautiful middle-aged school teacher. 

Last and the most important is the octogenarian lady, referred to by the author as ‘la sorcière’ (the witch). She is the grand voice, who commentates with free will and adds much spice to the ‘secret’, closely guarded by the author. There are hints for the keen reader though; the old woman says, ‘I am the one who will supply the final parenthesis to this story, trust me. You won’t be disappointed! She is ‘the village concierge’, a hedgehog without the elegance’ and the one through whose mouth the story unfolds. Along with an Alsatian, Neptune — a planetary influence — who roams around the town with gleeful abandon, she becomes the veritable keeper of the ‘secret’. Neptune is a mute witness, whose only words are an occasional bark; its lifetime is another ‘secret’ that unravels with time.  

The author’s words are simple yet complex; his narration is easy yet convoluted, his characters are ordinary yet fantastic — a feat only a grandmaster at his art can achieve; something that is underlined at the denouement in golden hue. Natural elements are weaved-in with utmost skill; they commingle with the story yet impose their singular presence. Black Water Lilies is the story of 13 fateful days, so numerology too is injected in the most surreptitious manner; another feather in the cap of Bussi.      

Brewed in the magic-realism genre, impressionism is at the heart of this literary tour de force. The impression it leaves, lasts.