In an age of abbreviations and short formats, here is an author who prefers long, ample, meaty and dense sentences. And that may be the recipe for his success. Maylis de Kerangal devours the literary season with her latest work Surf day, published by Editions Verticales in August 2024. A story which sets its scene on a beach in Le Havre, the city of his youth, where a stranded body is found.
Today, the writer has written more than ten books: Birth of a bridge, Corniche Kennedy or even Repair the living. Works that earned him public recognition.
And yet, It was only at the dawn of her 30s that Maylis de Kerangal began writing her first novel during a trip to Colorado in the 1990s. “I was following my husband who was going back to school at that time. I interrupted my work as a travel guide editor. First of all, it was my first stay in the United States. I found myself in these fiction and cinema settings that I love very much.”
And to add: “The writing grabbed me in this moment of pause in Colorado. I launched into a novel and I had the feeling of having been taken by this flow of language and words, sentences, and fiction. When I came back from that trip, I was a different person. And I think that what I had felt, what I had experienced during the time of writing, in the very present of creation, was so intense that I wanted to return to it. And since then, I haven't stopped coming back to it.”
It is often said that writing is inspired by magic. No, writing is a space-time. You need to have a place and time to do it.
Maylis of Kerangal
Having the time and settling in the right place, that's the secret of inspiration for Maylis de Kerangal. “It is often said that writing is inspired by magic, that we are visited by a slightly higher power. No, writing is a space-time. You must have a place and time to do it.”
And the words come naturally to him. “I write the book once, there is no first draft. It would be too difficult to write it twice. I don't even understand this first draft thing so much what matters to me is what happens in the present of the writing, reveals the writer. However, my editors have the freedom to tell me “you repeat yourself a little or this character could come up more.” They have a reading that still encourages me to continue.”
>> At the heart of creationa podcast presented by Xavier de Moulins. Every Saturday on RTL, in RTL Evening, the journalist takes us to meet men and women who have decided to devote their lives to an art. Writers, filmmakers, cooks or even singers and photographers, they reveal their secrets and will inspire you. Find the entire interview on podcast every Saturday, as well as a bonus episode, The Essentials, every Wednesday.
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