Lhe novelist Sandrine Collette is a unique figure in French literature. Both present and revered by her readership, and very discreet, with a tendency to be silent. In touch with contemporary themes, but writing novels located away from time and fashion, close to nature and a humanity returned to its instincts.
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She made herself known with extraordinary thrillers (Knots of steel, A wind of ashes, Six white ants…), then entered the “white”, while brilliantly practicing the mixture of genres, dystopia, noir novel, romance novel, nature writing French style (Just after the wave, And still the forests, We were wolves…)
She has carved out a name and a reputation for herself, it was time for a grand prize like the Goncourt des Lycéens to crown her: this one is all the more precious as it is awarded by an audience of high school students, deviation from the power games that take place behind the scenes of certain prices. On the phone, Sandrine Collette, who is leaving her beloved Morvan to reach the capital and the celebrations that will surround her prize, is talkative. Today, the discreet, silent woman does not shy away from her joy: her tone is sunny. She beams.
The Point: Madelaine before dawn has appeared on several lists of literary prizes, you passed very close to the Goncourt, the Goncourt for high school students was the final grand prize of this school year: what do you feel?
Sandrine Collette: I am amazed! I wasn't expecting anything anymore. After a while, we stop believing in it, because being slapped pushes us to protect ourselves. When I saw the other novels on the list, which tackled very current themes, novels about adolescence, sexuality, homophobia, everything they are discovering, I said to myself, “ ah… mine has little chance.” But we can't help but hope, and for twenty-four hours, I wasn't expecting anything, certainly, but with my heart racing a hundred miles an hour… And this Goncourt des Lycéens has all the more value in my eyes that it is very far from all the issues of this literary microcosm where the big back-to-school prizes are at stake. He reconciles me with a lot of things…
Why did you think your novel was less likely than others to appeal to young people?
Madelaine before dawn addresses timeless themes, such as social violence, violence against women, natural cataclysms, love and family ties, but in a very ancient, feudal framework. The risk was that for a readership of high school students, it would seem old-fashioned. But they took it as a story. A tale in which they recognized themselves.
What did they identify with?
To Madelaine's revolt in the face of injustice, first and foremost. His rebellion, his anger, which they share. Having to be a family, sticking together in the face of adversity. The love of mothers, of siblings. The dark themes of the book, such as illness, rape and death, shocked them. The relationship with animals also touched them greatly. Many people have a dog or cat that they consider their best friend. They rarely dare to say it, but the animal holds an important place in their hearts and the emotion comes to the surface very strongly when they talk about it.
Without saying too much, your novel contains a narrative tour de force, with a big surprise in the narration. Did they like it?
A lot. They liked the dynamic that this reversal created, which is for them proof that literature is not monotonous, that it can surprise them, challenge them.
You made a long tour to meet them. What did you like about contacting them?
Their innocence, their freshness, their naivety, but above all their curiosity. They ask questions that you never hear anywhere else. During the first meeting on my tour, a high school student asked me what the rules were for adopting a child in the Middle Ages. What adult would have thought to ask me that?ALSO READ The list of 30 books of the year
It's interesting that they set the novel in the Middle Ages, even though you don't name any era…
It's fun. For them, as soon as it's “old”, it's the Middle Ages! What amazed me was that they saw in this era an echo of their own. But ultimately, it's not surprising. They were very young during Covid, their sociability was crushed, social networks swept over them. This book offered them something simple, sincere, raw. They needed it.
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Answer
You are a great writer of dystopia, of survival in a hostile world, as evidenced by several of your previous novels. Did it speak to them?
Many of them thought that this might sound like a facet of the world that could happen. I think they are hypersensitive to it, because they are experiencing major anxiety linked to the prospect of social collapse. They feel that things are going badly, they are afraid. What pleases them, in my dystopias, and in Madelaine before dawn which also questions the theme of survival in a catastrophic context, is that it is not the extreme violence of The Road, by Cormac McCarthy, it is not an exclusively dark and hopeless world. There is destruction, then rebirth. This is what matters with young people: helping them think about the future, so that they have something else to believe and imagine other than simply: “everything is going to go wrong”.
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