I fell in love with novels at the age of ten. My mother was a librarian, but books had always bored me up to that point in my life. To be perfectly honest, I only liked comic books ! Then one day, I read a story that thrilled me : Wuthering Heights by Emily Brontë. From then on, I spent the major part of my summers sitting in a corner in the library reading, instead of going to the beach ! At that age, children are fearless, and I didn’t hesitate before embarking upon reading marathons. I remember reading War and Peace, Sentimental Education and The Stranger one after the other... And so from reading, was born a desire to write. The trigger was a short story contest organised by a 10th grade French professor. I had written a romantic story imbued with supernatural elements that was halfway between Stephen King and The Wanderer. And I won... I was so surprised that my stories interested other people that it encouraged me to keep writing.
Ideas can come from anywhere : from my own experience, from the news, from books... I also enjoy watching people, in restaurants, cafes, the metro, in shops... It’s what I call my « Taste for people ». It helps me feel the atmosphere, catch situations, dialogues, emotions... As soon as something captures my attention, I write it down on my computer or in my notebook, and at some point, after confronting the ideas one against the other, some will come together, and a plot eventually emerges.
Actually, I don’t ask myself that question. All I know is that I work really hard to prove myself worthy of it. I set myself the permanent task of invention. I like the story to be original, being so engrossed in the book I’m reading that I can’t put it down. I want every page to ask for another, and the end of every chapter to make the reader want to read the next one. I want him or her to feel the same thrills as the characters, to laugh and cry, and to feel happier upon finishing the book for having read it...
There is nothing worse than a book that bores you. By choosing our book out of many others, the reader gives us his trust, and the least we can do is not disappoint. That’s why writing generates anxiety. When I’m writing, I wake up in the night, I have many totally sleepless nights, I ask myself many questions...
The point when writing becomes a pleasure is at the end, when the book is there, and readers come to see me to say they found themselves in it. Like one woman, who sent me a message saying that she took my book with her to work to read it during her break, or the schoolgirl who admitted to me that she never reads, but that she finished my book under her desk in the classroom.
I like books more than I like authors. Among the classics : Her Lover (Belle du Seigneur) by Albert Cohen, The Unbearable Lightness of Being by Kundera, The Fiddler on the Roof by Jean Giono. In Poetry, Aragon and Apollinaire.
Among the more modern writers : Human Stain by Philip Roth, and Bag of Bones by Stephen King, whose capacity to create anguish within the mundane I admire. When it comes to French writers, I’m a fan of Jean-Christophe Grangé for the feverishness of his every page, of Tonino Benacquista for the humanity of his characters, and Anna Gavalda for her sensibility.
I don’t have a particular fascination with the american template. I live in France, and I love my country, but it is true that many of my stories are set in New York. The setting of a novel is important, because by creating the decor, it contributes to the credibility of a story. Of course, my stories could be set anywhere : Paris, London, Tokyo... But so far, when the first images manifest themselves in my mind, it is often with New York in the background, as it is a place where we feel anything can happen : the most wonderful of all love stories as well as the most atrocious tragedy. It is a city I know quite well, since I lived and worked there for several months when I was 19. I left without having a real plan, and once there, I found a job as ice cream vendor, and would work 70 to 80 hours a week ! Despite those hard working conditions, I fell in love with Manhattan, and every time I go back, I feel the same fascination for it as the first time. Also, ever since 9/11, New York has become a resilient city. Such a state resonates often with what my characters are going through. However, I absolutely do not have a rule against setting my novels in France, and it is quite certain that one of my novels to come will be set in Paris.
There is often a misunderstanding when it comes to my novels. The supernatural, the mysterious, the thriller, are all excuses used to tackle deeper subjects under the pretense of playfulness and lightheartedness. Et après…takes up the themes of mourning and of the frailness of our existence ; Sauve-moi invokes the role of coincidence and destiny ; Seras-tu la ? talks about old age, remorse and regrets. Parce que je t’aime addresses the subject of resilience, the psychological capacity to overcome adversity, to conquer ordeals, to come out the other side strengthened by those experiences. Je reviens te chercher discusses the idea of a second chance, and opens up for the debate the subject of responsibility for our choices, the tricks of fate and the opportunity to change its course. The supernatural thus becomes a dramatic tool that I sometimes use as a parable to evoke what I feel most passionately about : feelings, the meaning one gives to one’s life, absence, fear.
The idea came to me after a car accident that had a deep impact on me, when I was 24. Luckily, I wasn’t badly hurt, but my car was totally destroyed. I had never before seriously considered death, and I suddenly realised, in a split second, that She could come for us without warning at any moment. And so I wanted to write a story about this experience, the urgency to live that an encounter with death could provoke, but I didn’t know how to proceed. I was afraid that the subject matter was a little too morbid. But if people are somewhat reluctant to read a book about death, they are more than happy to read one filled with mystery, faerie-like qualities and the supernatural. Then I remembered those American films from the forties, that playfully disguise crucial questions : Frank Capra’s It’s a Wonderful Life, Jacques Tourneur’s La Féline, Joseph Mankiewicz’s The Ghost and Mrs. Muir. More recently, Wim Wenders with Wings of Desire and M. Night Shyamalan with The 6th Sense have also used such a detour through the supernatural to talk about mourning and the human condition.
Love is the subject matter of all my books, and to tell you the truth, I can’t imagine writing a novel without a love story in it ! In life, love is one of the most interesting things, isn’t it ? Since it is love, or the lack of it, that guides most human behaviours. To quote Christian Bobin : « It is always love that makes us suffer, even when we think we are not suffering at all ».
There is nothing more gratifying for me than seeing people read my books on the metro or on the bus. Popular literature – such as Agatha Christie, Barjavel or Stephen King...- is what first gave me a taste for books. It is the work of storytellers, done solely for the pleasure of reading. I have no issues with being a « popular » writer, on the contrary, I am very proud of it... Every time I meet the public at book signings, I’m surprised by its diversity : readers of all ages and sexes, but mostly young adults and adolescents. I think that’s what surprised me the most : that I managed to touch a generation that has a reputation for preferring video games and comic books to actual reading.
Et après… is due to come out in France in October 2008, starring Romain Duris, John Malkovich, and Evangeline Lilly.
Seras-tu-là ? will also become a feature length film – rights have been sold to Christian Fechner – as well as Parce que je t’aime, the rights to which have been purchased by Yves Marmion, the producer of the film A Secret. Several producers are interested in Sauve-moi as well as Je reviens te chercher.