Damien Lecamp, Alice Develey, Marie Khazrai… The new faces of the literary rentrée

Alice Develey, the explosion of a star

By Isabelle Spaak

Alice is 14 years old. Like all children her age, she is hungry for everything. Full of contradictions, she dresses in goth clothes but dreams of her best friend’s blond hair and Peter Pan collars. First in maths, she prefers French. Passionate about cooking, she prepares gargantuan meals for her brother Armand and their mother without eating anything herself. Except, sometimes, a few apple slices. And even then. Every time she swallows, the calorie count starts. Alice is harpooned by Sissi, one of the – terrifying – inner voices that govern her life. Sissi’s insults rain down: fat cow, fat sow! The scales also speak, 36 kg for 1.64 m. Alice is forcibly hospitalized. That was sixteen years ago. We would like to believe that it was more than a thousand years ago. There are true stories that mark their author’s entry into literature through the front door.

With Fallen from the sky, Alice…