“I wanted to write about these people”, this resident of Seine-et-Marne has released a new book

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His travels and experiences are an inspiration to his writing. Joël Chatain, resident of Crouy-sur-Ourcq (Seine-et-Marne) for more than 22 years, has just released his eleventh work entitled “First Age”.

Joël Chatain is a landscaper-designer. Originally from Burgundy, he likes to tell atypical paths. Already in his first work, he painted the life of a homeless person; in another, he took readers to meet Romanian students revolting in 1990 after the Ceausescu regime or even a story about the genocide in Rwanda.

For this new story, the author evokes his attraction to the Marseille tarot and its major arcana.

The Diola people

During a trip to Casamance, a region of Senegal, Joël Chatain had the opportunity to meet a unit of producers and cashew nut processors, Bacoole.

“I discovered the Diola people and the desire for books came naturally. The birth of a baby who is funny and serious at the same time, with incisive words, and blind. In his journey of life, he crosses a triangular epic between Senegal, Reunion and the metropolis.

In this new work, the baby his name is Armela girl who, although blind, speaks French straight away and talks about her life and his experience baby carried around to finally arrive on French territory in order to to be treated there.

The divinatory tarot at the heart of his work

Each major card of the Tarot de Marseille represents a victory, an obstacle or a step that leads to the transformation or ultimate fulfillment of one’s “Being” authentic.

“It was while reading Ulysses, by James Joyce when I was at the Versailles landscape school, that it clicked for me. My work, Pieces for a Coat of Roses, is like a puzzle of 22 pieces which will contain as much human comedy, interior monologue as theatrical dialogue,” confided the writer.

For the moment, Joël Chatain cannot make a living from his writings and he publishes independently, on its own fundshaving found a printer near Tours in Indre-et-Loire. It can be found regularly in book fairs.

A writing workshop

Joël Chatain will lead a writing workshop at the Luxembourg media library in Meaux, Saturday February 15, 2025 at 2:30 p.m. The theme will be “Medieval scientific police”, pre-encyclopedist anatomy of a murder. Presentation of the pre-encyclopedists and approach to the relationship to the body Middle Ages. Open to all.

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