Marc Levy on writing resistance into Les évadées, his new political thriller
The French author discusses forced labour camps, scientific erasure under authoritarianism, and why his two main characters are women.
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Marc Levy returned this week with Les évadées, a two-part political thriller that plunges into forced labour camps across Asia and the corruption of the White House since recent elections — familiar terrain for an author who has long written about freedom and resistance.
Levy, who lives in New York, said the novel began three years ago at the Quais du Polar book fair in Lyon, where he heard an Interpol investigator describe her work tracking missing persons. The second catalyst came when Robert F. Kennedy Jr. took office as health secretary. "The time has come to stop listening to experts," Kennedy said days after the election, in a moment Levy called a shock. "A doctrine of power is to say that knowledge is the enemy of the people. What autocrats cannot tolerate is someone holding knowledge that can contradict their doctrine. Science rests on the reality of facts. But the reality of facts disturbs autocrats who want to establish a parallel reality."
The novel centers on two twin sisters: Olivia, an immunologist in Boston who takes an unexpected role in resistance, and Cécile, an Interpol investigator who travels to Asia to investigate disappearances. Both are women by design. Levy said that when he researched his earlier novel Les enfants de la liberté, he discovered the French Resistance in World War II had equal numbers of women and men — yet cinema and literature almost always cast men as heroes. "I have always had great admiration for women, their courage and their strength," Levy said. "I have never felt, in my life, stronger than a woman — it has always been the opposite. I chose heroines because I find them more capable, more resilient, and more determined."
In the novel, characters organizing resistance in American scientific circles remain optimistic that justice will eventually prevail. Asked whether he shared that view, Levy said: "The purpose of literature is to illuminate dark periods and not make them even darker."
The details
Who are the main characters in Les évadées?
The novel centers on twin sisters Olivia, an immunologist in Boston, and Cécile, an Interpol investigator who travels to Asia to investigate disappearances.
What inspired Marc Levy to write this novel?
Levy was inspired by hearing an Interpol investigator describe her work tracking missing persons at the Quais du Polar book fair in Lyon three years ago, and later by Robert F. Kennedy Jr.'s appointment as health secretary and his statement dismissing expert knowledge.
Why did Levy make both main characters women?
Levy discovered while researching his earlier novel that the French Resistance in World War II had equal numbers of women and men, yet literature and cinema almost always portrayed men as heroes. He chose female protagonists because he finds women more capable, more resilient, and more determined.
