“Brive is screwing up”, headlines the newspaper The mountain on this November 11: don’t panic, behind this mischievous and “catastrophic” Une, no reference to the 41st edition of the Brive Book Fair, which was packed once again on this Saturday, but the failure of the The CA Brive rugby team the evening before against Soyaux-Angoulême (10 to 16). With all due respect to the Brivistes, the approximately 200 authors invited to the Halle Brassens are not likely to be upset by this sad news. Finally, especially those who sign in abundance like, notably, Amélie Nothomb, Gilles Legardinier, Franck Thilliez, Mélissa Da Costa, Agnès Martin-Lugand, Raphaëlle Giodarno, Alice Taglioni, Virginie Grimaldi (five hours of waiting for a signing!), Florence Aubenas and Jean-Baptiste Andrea, two of the heroes of the 2023 edition – she for being its president, and he, for being the Goncourt of the year with Watch over her (The Iconoclast). Both had ample opportunity to get to know each other, having shared the VIP section of the Brive train the previous morning. Brief return in time…
Gare de Lyon, November 10, 8:45 a.m., car 1: this is where the most “important” characters of the book’s train were assigned, namely, in the central heart, Jean-Baptiste Andrea, Florence Aubenas and its publisher, Olivier Cohen, and the Minister of Culture, Rima Abdul Malak. At their side, Régine Hatchondo, the president of the CNL, Jul, another guest of honor of the festival, François David, the general commissioner of the Fair, friends and accomplices Dany Laferrière and Alain Mabanckou, both members of the jury of the prize of the French language of Brive, Éric Fottorino, very affected by the death of his friend and journalist Laurent Greilsamer… In short, just great people. Conversations are going well between these good people: Jean-Baptiste Andrea, director in his first life, looks back on his setbacks in the cinema and repeats his happiness at being in the world of books, the opportunity for Florence Aubenas to recall that, disconcerted by the free adaptation by Emmanuel Carrère of his book Ouistreham quay (Editions de l’Olivier), she had requested that the title of the film be different from hers (hence the Ouistreham). But duty calls them, and the VIP room has to go up all the compartments to greet the authors and publishers who have boarded the special train.
Rima Abdul-Malak, the Minister of Culture, and Jean-Baptiste Andrea, 2023 Goncourt Prize, on the train towards the Brive book fair.
© / Marianne Payot/L’Express
Jean-Baptiste Andrea and Eric Reinhardt gathered under the Halle Brassens
11:15 a.m., duty accomplished, it’s time to tackle the Corrèze meal platter composed, among other things, of a very good medallion of semi-cooked duck and a perfect tiramisu with caramelized nuts, watered, of your choice , a Coteaux de la Vézère or a 1001 Pierres. Time flies, despite the five hour journey… 2 p.m., it’s raining in Brive, we might as well get down to business, in other words go meet the public. The time of disillusionment also for certain writers who will watch, helplessly, the lines forming in front of their colleagues or rather sisters (it’s crazy what novelists say – rightly or wrongly – feel good dedication without discontinuity). In this respect, the most bitter of the tables is certainly that made up of the two Goncourt finalists, decided in the 14th round, Eric Reinhardt and Jean-Baptiste Andrea: the first, not yet recovered from his failure, signs moderately, while the The lucky winner sees the line of future readers grow endlessly. With half a voice, you slip into the shadows or into the light. Such is the literary life…
Roussel, absent! Holland, present!
Saturday 11. Will come, won’t it come? Finally he will come, Guillaume Meurice, whose presence was doubted “for security reasons” after his controversial remarks about the Israeli Prime Minister, for which he received a warning from the management of Radio France. He even arrives to applause at the Flammarion stand, where he comes to sign his latest work, co-written with Nathalie Gendrot, The End of History: 201 Expressions to Amaze the Gallery. Will come, will not come? Well, Fabien Roussel didn’t come, expected on the stand of his publisher, Le Cherche Midi, this Saturday. The stacks of his book Happy days are ahead of us. From the presidential election to the reconstruction of the left are there, but the national secretary of the French Communist Party is absent.
The fear of seeing himself left behind by his designated neighbor of the day, Dominique Rocheteau (Sentimental football, Le Cherche Midi)? Or, much more likely, his announced presence at the Parisian demonstration against anti-Semitism this Sunday. Will come, will not come? He came, and as usual in his Corrèze lands, he created a nice crowd, François Hollande. Not a person who does not ask for their selfie in the company of the former President of the Republic. Enough to flatter the ego… It is also an ardent (family) obligation: wasn’t his wife, Julie Gayet, invited to the Fair to talk about her book Together we are stronger (Stock)? An hour’s conference in the largest room of the Halle this Sunday… François Hollande will not attend, however, as he must also be present at the Parisian demonstration.
On the other hand, we have not yet seen them, all these VIPs, swinging their hips on the Cardinale track, to the great relief, one imagines, of security, particularly on the teeth, in these eventful times, with these thousands of visitors and all these luminaries.
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