Eternal Japansubtitled Journey under the flowers of a floating world is a album dedicated to the fundamentals of Japanese culture signed Amélie Nothomb. It comes from his podcasts made with Laureline Amanieux. Superbly illustrated with a black and white coverAdrienne Bornstein (see also our review), the work includes photographs of contemporary places in Japan, iconic works by great Japanese artists, collection objects from the Guimet Museum, photographs of the great Japanese gardens and the Albert Khan Museum, as well as contemporary illustrations or even Japanese living art.
It is published by Albin Michel, like all of Amélie Nothomb’s books and in particular her latest novel The impossible return, which is also located in Japan, a country dear to her heart where she feels she has failed to live. As she already told in Stupor and tremors (Albin Michel, 1999, Grand Prix du roman de l’Académie française), or Happy Nostalgia (Albin Michel, 2013). The opportunity for us to return with her to this “Japaneseness” that she claims, to her journey and to her very personal practice of writing.
Livres Hebdo: How was born Eternal Japan ?
Amélie Nothomb: Two years ago, we produced podcasts with Laureline Amanieux, who knows Japan a thousand times better than me, where I spoke with eminent specialists in Japanese culture. The reactions from the listeners were enthusiastic, and we felt a sort of frustration that the adventure ended like this. That’s why we made this book. This is Japan for Japanese fans, and for those of my readers who really love me.
With your novel The impossible returnwhich takes place in Japan, was it a premeditated sequence?
No way. This is due to several happy coincidences. The impossible return, it is the fictionalized story of a trip to Japan that I took in May 2023 with a friend and at her request. I hadn’t been back there for a long time. It was an opportunity. But, even when I’m not talking about Japan, Japan is so present in me. I feel something Japanese in my writing.
In The impossible return, what is the balance between reality and fiction?
The hardest part is keeping the right distance from your subject. So I’m distant, but not too much. Clearly, I did not go to Japan with a photographer friend, but with a writer friend, let’s call it “demanding”. It was her desire not to appear in the book, and, for me, it was more interesting that she was a photographer. Question of gaze.
During your trip, we see you writing, as usual, every day at 4 a.m. Is this The impossible return that you write, in live ?
Not at all, I was writing something completely different! A novel that I chose not to publish, faithful to my always way of working. Thanks to strict discipline, I write three novels a year, I select one, alone, by instinct, and I present it to my editor, Francis Esménard, the first to have trusted me. In more than thirty years, he has only refused me three texts, and he was right. This is something I can accept, because I have faith in his judgment.
“I live in terror, anguish, I am sick when I submit my manuscript”
Have you become accustomed to success over all these years?
Absolutely not. With each book, it’s always a surprise, almost a total one. I fear making people envious, but there is another side to the coin: over time, I get worse! I live in terror, anguish, I am sick when I submit my manuscript. Writing, as I practice it, is a very hard and very protective mechanism at the same time. I experienced complicated situations, at 4 a.m., writing on my knees in my notebook, on an empty stomach, a cup of strong tea next to me, with a companion, then disturbed, who chased me and insulted me. I am a very patient and very courageous person. With Penelope’s loyalty, but productive! I have always been able to write, even in the worst moments, as it should be written. This requires years and years of daily practice.
An experience close to Zen?
My writing practice is indeed akin to a form of meditation, of asceticism. I go down into the writing submarine. I enter my body. I’m cold, I’m sweating. And on the days when I have achieved the writing I wanted, my body gives off a particular smell, not very pleasant… I started writing at the age of 17, but at first I couldn’t do it. It was thanks to this method, developed when I lived in Japan, around the age of 21, at the end of the 1980s, that I was able to become a writer. I invested everything in writing: no computer, television, cell phone, social networks…
Could this mechanism ever stop?
I don’t want it and I don’t see it coming. I remember what the great Paul Veyne said to me one day: “ HAS From 85 years old, it becomes more difficult “. I still have a little time!
Your novels are published in 47 foreign languages. Which countries do they work best in?
Italy, where all my books are translated, and where I go every year. Spain. South Korea too, where I am popular because I am considered an “anti-Japanese” author.
And in Japan?
Actually, that’s not where it works best! All my books are translated there, but not very popular.
Do you plan to return there one day?
Certainly, but not right away. See you in ten years!
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Eternal Japan, Journey under the flowers of a floating worldwith Laureline Amanieux, Albin Michel, 352 p., 24.90 E, on sale October 16.
Amélie Nothomb, The impossible returnAlbin Michel, 158 p., 18, 90 E., in library.
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