CocciClelia, blogger and contributor to the 20 Minutes Books reading group, recommends “Stolen Pages” by Alexandra Koszelyk, published on August 23, 2024 by Éditions Aux forges de vulcain.
His favorite quote:
« And since literature is a perpetual movement, the text continues.” “We bury our dead by wrapping them in stories, pages stolen from oblivion. » »
Why this book?
- Because with this book, who sees his writing process taking place over a period almost equivalent to a gestation, the author will succeed in putting words to the accident where her parents lost their lives, and where she and her brother, the only survivors, had to live with this trauma. A gestation to be reborn, and to bring this book into the world. A real intimate dive into his life, without pathos, without voyeurism, more like a dissection, certainly still a form of protection. An analysis of extreme accuracy and sensitivity in the words that the author handles like a juggler.
- Because the author had to build herself in the face of silence of his family. Faced with this silence his first reaction was also silence, reading, learning. A form of rebirth, this time with speech and writing. As in the process of learning a language, silence, internalization is necessary, before expression. The process of constructing an identity is very complex, and above all very personal and unique. With this book the author gives us the keys to reading her books. It’s no longer about characters, but about people and facts.
The essentials in 2 minutes
The plot. For the author, it is about being able to put words that she never managed to put on the death of her parents, on the accident and the trauma that she and her brother suffered. She has a necessity, to write to rebuild herself. Like the butterfly that one day emerges from its chrysalis.
The characters. Autobiography of the author.
The places. Mainly Mortagne-au-Perche in Normandy where the author is in a writing residency. Normandy plays an essential role in the author’s life and past.
The era. From July 8, 2023 to November 16, 2024
The author. Alexandra Koszelyk, novelist and professor of Classics. Of Ukrainian origin, this author’s family arrived in France in the 1930s. Graduated from the University of Caen Normandy. She teaches French, Latin and ancient Greek in college.
This book was read with a strong emotion, a tight throat, shortness of breath, as if in apnea. It is a methodical work carried out by the author, at her own pace, with several “rereadings”, to completely analyze her experience, her feelings, which since that day has made her what she is today. , its “construction”.
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