“The Anteater”, the acid French fable about the Bolsonaro Government

Paris, 17 Mar Alessandro Contente, a despot leader and manipulator, rises to power in one of the most important countries on the planet, the Democratic Federation of the Amazon. His inseparable companion is a gentle anteater. Thus begins “La Tamanoir” (“The Anteater”), a work inspired by the Government of Jair Bolsonaro that mixes novel and fable. With this book, published in French by the publisher Le Poisson Volant, the Frenchman David A. Lombard (1975) finds fertile ground “to attack the populism epidemic” that spreads across several continents. “I started writing it in September 2019, about nine months after Bolsonaro's election. Their tone outputs had already been sounded then. The novel is a form of political awakening, complementary to essays and journalism,” he says in an interview with EFE Lombard. For a year and a half, this Parisian doctor has alternated his long working days in his office with the writing of a 500-page choral work that weaves several stories developed in different parts of the world, but which end up converging in Brazil. His “affective attachment” to that country, carved out of trips, friendships and admiration for local culture, led him to become interested in what was happening in Bolsonaro's Brazil, which, in his eyes, is a reflection of the “populist-demagogic” trend implanted in other countries. “Brazil is important in the geopolitical, demographic and economic plan. And what happens there also has strong ecological implications” for the rest of the world, he argues. The protection of the environment is, in fact, one of the axes on which the work revolves, in which several episodes inspired by the wave of fires that suffered in the Amazon between July and September 2019 are noveled. Feminism also shines through: “Female characters are strong, perhaps stronger than men,” Lombard points out. Among them, the first lady of Alessandro Contente stands out, Atia, who “reveals all her greatness” when she challenges her husband. The anteater, an albino type specimen, is the piece that gives meaning to the fable and its curious relationship with Contente opens the door to interpretations. For the character who plays the authoritarian leader, the docile animal — an amulet that was given to him when he came to power — becomes essential, since it absorbs what he fears most in the world: insects. “The anteater personifies the wild and naive nature. Its sweet and placid character contrasts with the instinctive effluviums of the character of Contente”, concludes the author. CHIEF tc/mgr/fp