A gripping new book is offering an unprecedented look inside the courtroom of the largest criminal trial in French history. In “V13,” renowned author Emmanuel Carrère chronicles the trial of 20 individuals accused of involvement in the devastating Paris terror attacks of November 13, 2015, which claimed 130 lives.
Carrère, known for his incisive true crime writing and deeply personal memoirs, spent nine months observing the momentous proceedings at the Paris Palais de Justice. Tasked by editors at Le Nouvel Obs magazine with filing weekly dispatches, he immersed himself in the trial’s many storylines, from the wrenching testimony of survivors to the alleged attackers’ own words.
“A Unique Experience of Horror, Pity, Proximity and Presence”
The attacks on that fateful Friday the 13th in 2015 unfolded with ruthless coordination across the French capital. Three suicide bombers struck outside the Stade de France during an international football match. Gunmen opened fire on cafes and restaurants. And at the Bataclan theatre, militants massacred concert-goers during a packed rock show in a siege that stretched on for hours.
Over 100 days of hearings, Carrère listened as hundreds of the 1,800 registered plaintiffs took the stand to bear witness. Their accounts from inside the Bataclan are especially harrowing – tales of terror unfolding to “a shout a shot, a sob a shot, a ringtone a shot.” Survivors described crawling through “human mud” and likened the scene as attackers blew themselves up to “a confetti of human flesh.”
“Such a casting-call attitude is terrible, but how to escape it?”
– Emmanuel Carrère, on the intensity of journalists’ focus when plaintiffs’ testimony is particularly dramatic
Faced with such wrenching stories, Carrère grapples with the detached instincts of those covering the trial, himself included. He notes the clacking of journalists’ keyboards rising when certain victims speak – “Such a casting-call attitude is terrible,” he writes, “but how to escape it?”
Yet he also captures moments of extraordinary humanity: the plaintiffs who wear green or red ribbons to signal their willingness to speak to media, with some hedging their bets by wearing both. There are poignant descriptions of small gestures of support among survivors. To be in that courtroom, Carrère says, is to have “a unique experience of horror, pity, proximity and presence.”
Unanswered Questions Around an “Abysmal Void”
As masterful as Carrère is in conveying the human drama, he runs up against the opaque psychology of the accused. Early on, the alleged sole surviving attacker Salah Abdeslam declares: “What you should do is read the jihadists’ book from the start.” The author tries to imagine his way into their world of ISIS videos consumed in a hash smoke-filled cafe, but is left only with a sense of “an abysmal void wrapped in lies.”
Many key questions go unanswered. Why did Mohamed Abrini resign from his attack role at the eleventh hour, then fail to detonate months later at the Brussels airport? What became of Sonia, the woman who tipped off police to the cell leader’s location? With such “mysteries,” Carrère recognizes the limitations of the trial as a fact-finding exercise.
In the end, the proceedings may provide less illumination than solace. After nine months, verdicts are rendered to victims’ tearful relief. Justice is served in the only way an imperfect system can muster. And yet, as Carrère’s vivid accounting lays bare, so much about that terrible night – and the hate that drove it – remains in shadowed realms beyond a courtroom’s reach.
A Voice for the Voiceless
“V13” takes its place in Carrère’s oeuvre as an exploration of trauma and the human capacity for cruelty and redemption. Like 2009’s “Other Lives But Mine,” where he brought to life the workings of a mundane small claims court, he has a gift for illuminating the humanity within institutional settings.
While the attacks’ perpetrators may ultimately prove inaccessible to true understanding, Carrère ensures that the tragedy’s 131st victim – a young father who took his own life two years after surviving the Bataclan – and so many others are seen, heard and remembered. In a country still grappling with that horrific night seven years on, “V13” feels like essential reading and a significant work of documentary literature.
