Essais Documents Entre Nos Lignes

"Years and time, absence and waiting, words and still more written words as a means of giving each other a hug, of loving each other, what a strange fate we have." So begins Between Our Lines, the story of a relationship that developed despite separation, infinite distance and an ocean of differences between two cultures. In this long Letter to Hank, Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner addresses her husband Hank Skinner, condemned to death in Texas in 1995 for a triple murder he has always denied committing. With all the strength invested in her by her love and her fight for the truth, Sandrine does something for him and with him: she goes back over the things that bring them together, those that divide them and those that make them inseparable. She depicts the experience of a love that seems always to have been there and should never end, a love that grew up from one letter to another and that has continued to mature through the twists and turns of a battle whose outcome is far from certain and in which life and death are both constantly in the balance. A love in which words and eye contact are the only forms of contact. They do not know each other by touch, by smell. In the visiting room their eyes meet through bullet-proof glass, and their voices are filtered through a telephone. Between the Lines is solid as concrete, with few line breaks, little opportunity to breathe, it flows in one rush, just like the hundreds of letters Sandrine has written to Hank. Letters written with a sense of urgency, as if they were holding their breath. Between Our Lines is a powerful, disturbing, captivating book. Not one you can put down. And if there are moments when you smile, it's always with tears in your eyes. This story is so staggering, and the country, the United States - land of freedom but also of barbarity - is staggering too. Sandrine's words ring terrifyingly true and hit hard. In fifteen years she hasn't given up once, has never allowed herself a moment's doubt, scarcely so much as a tear shed over an image, but swiftly wiped away. She believes in what she's fighting for, and she's right to: as she puts the finishing touches to her book, Hank Skinner has finally secured the right to have the DNA test that he and Sandrine have been wanting for more than ten years. Sandrine Ageorges-Skinner is production manager. She has a 25-year-old daughter and in 2008 she married the American Hank Skinner. She has lived in Texas and Paris, France for many years.