The Goncourt of high school students received Thursday by Sandrine Collette recognizes a writer who broke through in so-called “white” literature, after beginnings in the dark novel, to become a very serious contender for major literary prizes.
It took a lot of convincing for this 54-year-old author to seduce her. But the evocative power of his style gradually established itself.
At the beginning of November, she was even among the four finalists for the Goncourt prize, ultimately won by Kamel Daoud with “Houris”. A feat for the one who had initially chosen the noir novel.
Although gifted at writing, Simenon, father of Commissioner Maigret, understood this when he signed “Le Testament Donadieu” in 1937, longer and in a more canonical style than the rest of his work. He had been snubbed by the Goncourts.
“White literature” in France, that which this famous prize rewards, must respect unwritten codes: publishing house, collection, cover design, themes, style, publication date, etc.
However, Sandrine Collette entered literature via Sueursfroides, a collection from Editions Denoël which had published Boileau-Narcejac, leading authors of the noir novel in France, and Dashiell Hammett, legend of the genre in the United States.
– “Damn” life –
“Des knots d’acier”, in 2013, is one of the titles which relaunch this collection which has been stopped for 15 years. Without her saying it, Sandrine Collette enters reluctantly.
“I didn’t read thrillers and that’s not what I wanted to write. With this label, I thought that my life as a beginning author was over,” she confided to Le Monde in 2022.
However, the novelist will also publish her next six books there. And it will establish a solid reputation.
“What we call a unique voice in the landscape of French crime fiction,” writes Le Monde. The daily particularly praises “thirty absolutely flamboyant first pages” in the seventh, “Animal” in 2019.
His journey as a writer is more tortuous than it should have been. Because this “anxious person”, as she easily admits, dared to submit her writings late, in her forties.
Doctor in political science, lecturer at the University of Nanterre, she was little interested in the rare positions in higher education. She branched off into administrative careers, without ever abandoning her two childhood passions: horses and writing.
This upset rural woman, who left her village in Nièvre to finally return there, is part, with Pierric Bailly or Serge Joncour, of the cohort of writers who write about the implacable force exerted by the natural environment on humans.
– “Great coward” –
She reinvents herself with another publishing house, JC Lattès, starting in 2020 and with her novel “And Always the Forests”.
This post-apocalyptic story, “as disturbing as it is poignant” according to Le Figaro, won the Closerie des Lilas prize and the RTL/Lire Grand Prix. That's it, Sandrine Collette is an author of white literature. “A happy misunderstanding,” she says today.
In 2022, “We were wolves” entered the first selection for the Femina Prize and reached the six finalists for the Renaudot Prize. He also received the Jean-Giono prize.
The mastery of his intrigues, an essential ingredient of noir, often struck the juries.
“I need to have a framework, that is to say, to know where I am starting from and knowing where I am arriving, this to give me a thread, and therefore a tension,” she described to Femme Current.
“I work a lot on my atmospheres. I think that emotion comes through atmospheres. My universe is that of darkness and it is that of fear. It is that of survival,” she continued. “To find adrenaline, I go looking for fear, with an ease which is because I myself, in life, am a big coward”.
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