In Eure, Tita Formalagues writes novels about family stories

A few months ago, Tita Formalagues published his first novel, Sodoes he hear. The resident of Grosley-sur-Risle (Eure) has loved imagining stories since his childhood in Béarn.

“I had a whole childhood life, very happy, a little apart from my parents, that allowed me to dream a lot and to make up stories », remembers Tita Formalagues.

Tita Formalagues has been writing texts for forty yearsbut until now, she kept her prose to herself. “I needed to express nostalgia, situations that had pleased or amused me,” remembers the young retiree. She begins to take up the pen in your twentiesnever to put it down again.

A journey in political history

Originally, Tita Formalagues was passionate about history and archeology. She studied history at the University of Pau before moving into the cinema sector. “I made a dissertation on mythological peplumsthe cheesiest films in the history of cinema,” she says.

His ancient history teacher is very intrigued by his choice. During the restitution of his dissertation, his work was noticed, especially that on thepolitical involvement in this cinematographic genre in the 1950s in Italy.

“My teacher encouraged me to go to Sciences Po Paris, on the basis of this totally improbable memoir,” recalls the author.

She therefore leaves her native Béarn for the Capital. After two years of work on cinema and politics, she became the assistant of Pierre Milzagreat historian specializing in fascism and Nazism.

I wrote for pleasure, but without ever thinking of being published.

Two years later, Sciences Po presses asked her to become responsible for the publishing house’s entire portfolio of magazines. “I was very lucky, because I never looked for a job,” she smiles.

Tita Formalagues ends up responsible for the magazine International criticism. “It’s a journal of researchers in the human sciences and social sciences who only work internationally,” explains the Grosleyan.

For twenty years, “I wrote all day with the authors,” she announces. Its objective was to make researchers’ articles understandable by all readers.

“I rewrote the text with the authors,” she says. At the same time, I wrote for my pleasurebut without ever thinking of being published. » She notably adapts the novel by Roy Lewis into a play, Why did I eat my father?and lots of news.

“I wrote a comic strip, a commission from a cartoonist from the southwest who asked me to write the story of a local mythical character, King Léon,” she says.

The family at the center of his books

During confinement, Tita Formalagues finally find time to truly devote himself to his passion. “I was locked in my Parisian apartment, I worked remotely and I wrote in the evening,” explains the writer. This period was beneficial, because she managed to write his novel, a play and a story.

I write the stories I would like to be told.

In his book So be itas in his next ones, families have a big role to play. In his first published novel, several characters “who don’t know each other” revolve around a police investigation.

“They will be brought to cross paths, meet and be put in contact by another somewhat strange and mysterious character,” says the author. Gradually, these single people will socialize and build a family.

This is also what the cover illustrates. Each branch of the tree is the journey of a character and everyone comes together to help a third party. What inspired him? “ So nostalgic. I am very attached to old families and childhood memories,” she answers.

The intrigues around the family are also what she prefers to read. “I really like the Central European authors of the 19th centurylike Kafka, Leo Perutz or even Sándor Márai. They are authors of the soul, a literary movement of the time which was very attached to describe the movements of the heart », says Tita Formalagues.

I feel like a lot of readers read to learn things. If there is anything to learn from reading, it is about yourself.

The latter mainly likes how the characters are constructed, “they are the reflection of what we experience and what we are. These novels gave me a disposition for empathy to understand others.”

Soon, Tita Formalagues would like publish your story. “It’s the story of the life of a slightly obsessive little boy, with somewhat particular codes. Every day matches a color of clothing », she describes.

This will be a tale as well for children than adults. The writer will also resume her novel that she had written before confinement, always around the links between humans: “On a family secret”.

Find his novel So be itpublished by Édition Baudelaire, can be found on the publisher’s website, on Amazon, Cultura, Decitre, Fnac.com and in all bookstores.

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