TOmélie Nothomb is a Belgian writer. Daughter of a diplomat, he spent his childhood in Japan, then moved to China and Bangladesh. Award-winning, films and plays have been made from his works. It seems that Amélie Nothomb, rather than a family, has an infinite source of inspiration: after First Bloodthe mémoire dedicated to her father Patrick which earned her the Prix Renaudot ’21 and the Strega Europeo ’22 award, now brings The Book of Sisters (Voland). A very bright noir sewn on two ill-loved little girls who, in the sisterhood, they find salvation. One of the two, lo and behold, has something of her beloved sister Juliette.
Amélie Nothomb’s Book of Sisters Voland128 pages, €16
Amélie Nothomb, the most read in the world
The work No. 31 by the Belgian baroness, the best-selling French-speaking writer in the world, touches serious topics lightly and accurately forges words as sharp as samurai swords. Of a beauty that hurts and whispers questions. These.
Were you inspired by your relationship with your sister Juliette to create Tristane and Laetitia?
I’ve wanted to write about the two of us for a long time, but I didn’t know how to do it because it’s embarrassing to talk about someone who exists. So, to create the two sisters, I put me and Juliette in a cocktail shaker, I shook it, I poured the mixture into two glasses, I called one cocktail Tristane and the other Laetitia. Each has many characteristics of both. Tristane has Juliette’s discretion, her devotion; and she also has my sad past (the fight against anorexia and violent adolescence, ed.). Laetitia has Juliette’s joyful background and my passion for music.
Yours is an absolute love. Without jealousy and competition. Practically the opposite of what happens between brothers and sisters. But how is it done?
I just got lucky. I’m the best big sister’s little sister in the universe. It’s easy to love Juliette because she loved me right away. But it must be said that some sisters are more difficult.
How did your brother André take it?
He was my number 1 enemy. He was the oldest, then Juliette was born and he had a friend to play with. He was happy. Three years later I arrived and subconsciously we both wanted to own it. So we fought but I won because she came towards me and not towards him. That’s why she spent my entire childhood making me angry, breaking my toys and saying nasty things to me. Now we are reconciled.
In fact, the novel tells of a family tragedy.
I think all families are a tragedy. I had excellent parents but I have a couple of friends who told me about theirs and I was inspired by Nora and Florent. They are the typical fortress couple who live love as a prison, excluding even their daughters from their eternal idyll. The two girls are miraculously saved by dedicating themselves to each other, but the wounds remain. Tristane will always be sad. What can be done about coldness? But nothing. It is a modest suffering, after all.
Tristane treats his little sister as a sacred burden, gives her a bottle, changes her diapers, makes her play. Isn’t it unreal today to think that a five-year-old can really take care of a baby on her own?
I have many testimonials that say otherwise. Some children have more pronounced maternal instincts than adults. I saw it with my own eyes in Bangladesh where at the age of four one begins to be a mother to newborns. And everything works wonderfully.
What is “dull little girl” syndrome?
Tristane one day overhears her mother calling her dull because she can’t or doesn’t want to see its sparkle. Who hasn’t happened to be a prisoner of a characteristic saddled by others for 10-20 years or even for life? Words have the power we give them and I try to show that even small curses like that can be freed.
How do you find the right sound to give to your words?
It’s pure instinct. Being a writer means realizing that language, when used well, can have power. Hence the importance of using it with caution. When I hear someone talking lightly, I feel the same terror as when I see a child playing with a Kalashnikov. I try to emphasize the danger of language without discouraging people from resorting to its life-saving use.
Amélie Nothomb is a Belgian writer. The daughter of a diplomat, she spent her childhood in Japan, then moved to China and Bangladesh. Award-winning, films and plays have been made from her works. (Handle)
She has readers who have been following her for 30 years. Do you even think a little about them when you write?
I get up at four every morning to write, even when I’m sick or on vacation because I can’t help it. This is the 31st book, but I’ve written 105. I write for me, my inner reader is me. And I choose what to publish letting myself be led only by desire.
Do you still write love letters?
Regularly. Is essential. Every morning I call my sister and tell her I love her. But writing goes so much further than words, things are expressed that will never break. So I advise those who are in love to always write love letters.
You and Juliette lived together until you were 30. What put an end to cohabitation?
We met love at the same time. So she lives in Lyon and I in Paris. She cooks very well, she writes cookbooks and recently in France she published one that recounts our childhood and adolescence: L’eugio del Cavallo. Yes, we’ve always had them around her and for her, for a long time, they were everything.
At one point in the book, he also gives a talk on literature. And about the power that certain texts exercise over us.
Yes, because Tristane wants to know literature like a mountaineer wants to know Everest. He wants to climb every side, measure its abysses and peaks. And I begin with Racine’s Bérénice because she is a shocking heroine, she represents the drama of wounded, amputated love. You know a pain we’ve all been through in our lives. But she retains her dignity. Not all of us have always succeeded.
There is also a lot of rock in the book.
I wasted my life because I actually wanted to be a singer, even though I didn’t have the voice and the sense of rhythm. So I came up with the Pneus, the band of Tristane and Laetitia who find escape in rock. I, on the other hand, love Metal. In particular, I’d like Tool to be played at my funeral. Thank you.
iO Woman © REPRODUCTION RESERVED