Shortlisted Prix du Métro Goncourt 2022
Prix Envoyé par La Poste 2022

The revenge that Bambi never got to take…

Mona Messine’s fable is an ode to nature and all of its moving parts. Biche focuses on a day of hunting from the different points of view all of those involved from the hunters, to the park ranger, the hunting dog and even the deer.

Messine invites the reader to step into the forest inhabited by her characters where they are surrounded by the trees, the animals and all of nature’s wonders. She gets into the minds of her characters to show how they think and feel about hunting. While the hunters are the predators, they aren’t necessarily the villains; they see hunting as a necessity and not always a sport.

It’s an ordinary day of hunting until a man named Gérard separates from the group and loses his way in the forest. When a storm comes that night, he becomes more and more vulnerable to the nature that surrounds him.

While people are out looking for Gérard, the doe he had been hunting now gets to hunt him.

Mona Messine, born in Bordeaux in 1992, is an artist, poet, editor and writer. In 2020, she founded and co-edited the literary magazine Débuts with the purpose of discovering emerging literary and poetic talents. Biche is her first novel.