Karine Glorieux was inspired by her own experience as an au pair in a wealthy London family to write her new novel

Karine Glorieux, a talented writer, was inspired by her own experience living abroad as an au pair to write her new novel, The year I came out of my aquarium. Both a coming-of-age novel and a travel novel, this text depicts the reality of life in a family you don’t know, mental health problems and their effects on loved ones, the quest for bearings and the delicate transition in adulthood.

The year I came out of my aquarium is published by Éditions QuébecAmérique.

Against a backdrop of nostalgia, cassettes listened to on a Walkman and grunge fashion, Karine Glorieux takes a caring but lucid look at complex family relationships, approaches mental health with respect and delicacy, and the quest for oneself… far of his native land.

It is 1994 and Raphaëlle, 17, is stuck between the difficulties experienced in her family, her studies which are giving her a hard time, and the absence of a fixed goal for her future. She decides to go to London to learn English and get a change of scenery.

She is hired by a well-off family as an au pair. It doesn’t take long to realize that her foster family is just as dysfunctional as the one she left. She builds bonds with the people around her and takes care of the children who also face daily challenges.

Mental health

Karine Glorieux, who we recognize for her refreshing, fluid writing, her beautiful metaphors and her favorites and her rants, had a blast in this novel.

“I wrote this book after Next to the trackwhere I focused on mental health, burn-outdepression, how it is perceived from the inside,” she explains in an interview.

“This time, I thought it would be interesting to talk about the consequences that mental health disorders can have on family members. Collateral damage.”

“We don’t talk about it that much and it really exists. I wanted to approach it with this character who was in a family where there were mental health problems, and who didn’t really know how to react to that. Raphaëlle, at the beginning of the book, leaves because it’s too much for her. At some point, she needs some air to be able to take a little step back from her brother’s illness.

Build yourself

Karine Glorieux therefore puts this forward: how can you succeed in building yourself when there is someone in your family who takes a lot of attention – in this case, mental health.

“How do you manage to find your place, to develop your personality? I wanted this character to be at that moment in life where she wants to stand on her own two feet. Obviously, travel is the best way to represent that. She’s going far away.”

“It’s a time when all possibilities open up… but where it’s not necessarily easy: there are responsibilities that come with that,” she adds. “Sometimes we’re not always ready when we’re 17-18 years old. We are still a little fragile and we are still looking for what we want to be in life.”

Karine Glorieux was inspired by her own experience as an au pair in London. “The whole setting is exactly the house I was in: a big house, in a rich area of London. It was a beautiful setting for a novel.”

The year I came out of my aquarium

Karine Glorieux

Editions Quebec America

248 pages

Karine Glorieux studied literature and traveled everywhere before settling in Montreal.
She has published several novels for adults (Next to the track, Kill the hen) and for young people (It was 26 timesthe series Mutantsthe series Mademoiselle Tic Tac).
She teaches literature at the Collège de Maisonneuve.

“Disoriented because of the time difference and lack of sleep, I started looking for the youth hostel where I would spend the first few days. I had circled the address in my Routard guide, on my map of the city center, I had learned it by heart. However, I got lost at least ten times before finding the right place. I looked at the gray building, it looked like it was competing with the sky, and I entered, whispering, so that my mouth got used to forming strange words: