There is literature. And then there is life. The two mix and coexist for the characters in the novel who closes the trilogy The country of othersas for its author. Leïla Slimani reveals her perception of literature and her relationship to writing.
– In this novel, several characters, of different generations, write. But they don’t have the same relationship to writing …
Mathilde, the grandmother, has the feeling of having something to tell, that her life is not trivial. And she has a very strong sense of story. But she hides from her husband, who considers that life is more important than what can be written. The father, Mehdi, has a more intellectual relationship to literature. He reads a lot and admires writers. But this admiration crushes it and prevents it. The girl, Mia, is in short the heiress of these two visions. It is like a resolution of the two characters.
