Michelle

Amélie Nothomb tells you: "I belong to a family where literature is sacred. God, it was less important than a writer. " She was God, then reduced to adolescence. She was all, then almost broken down. But at this precise moment, she is there. She holds the French book industry at the end of her Belgian arms. But for an hour, the quality of her presence is overwhelming, and frankly unexpected. She doesn't want to distract herself, she wants to get to know each other and she wants to understand.

She shines with a long tirade about her childhood and her vocation. She already knows the questions. They have been asked to her hundreds of times. And then she comes back, she gives you some space. Then, she speaks about her femininity, about ugliness as an original condemnation. About how lucky it is to be a woman, despite constant calls to order, intimidation.

Amélie Nothomb is a small, frail woman. She is direct and capricious. She's a ghost and she's a singer. Admirable language, irreproachable spirit and carnal presence. Star and sister. For her, "Being a woman is harder than being a man and that's why it's so good. Everything that is more difficult is more interesting ”.

At her desk, between meticulous piles of letters from her readers, she says she never wanted a child. She gently challenges you to judge her. All women are women. For you, this is a basic axiom, an achievement of the sisterhood relationship. All women are women. Those who can't, those who don't want to. All women. Amélie Nothomb, with her character, no less than the others, and even more, much more.

Still, writing about a writer is a big deal.