Ismaël Khelifa, bringer of hope – Marcelle

From Senegal to Colombia, this travel addict likes to recount the struggles of those who do not wait for the impetus of public authorities to act and improve the lot of their contemporaries. On the occasion of the release of his first novel, The most beautiful thing in lifeIsmaël Khelifa, the journalist from Échappées belles, stopped off in Marseille. And somewhere at the top of the Canebière, took the time to share his vision of the world with us.

« It took me ages to finish this book. I had a hard time leaving my characters. Limit I said good night to them », he smiles, triggering affectionate laughter from the fifty people who came to see in real life the man with whom they usually travel via TV. Journalist, presenter of the show Échappées Belles, it is today as an author of novels that Ismaël Khelifa returned to the Marseille city. To invest in the second floor of the Maupetit bookseller, at the top of this Canebière decorated with its Christmas lights.

Marseille: a city he knows from having lived there. Three years. From 2016 to 2019. And which had a profound impact on him. “ This frontal humanity that we get caught in the face”he recalls, fiddling with the collection of colorful beaded bracelets that adorn his wrist. He remembers his outspokenness. The drama of the rue d’Aubagne. Inequalities palpable on every street corner. But also ” these people who take matters into their own hands “. Like the Grand Bleu, this association from the north of the city which fights to allow all children safe access to the sea, in a city where one in three children cannot swim. He also thinks of these civic and festive cleanings which refuse the fatality according to which Marseille is a city condemned to dirt.

Giving pride of place “to all those who build”