Mes parents

“Mes Parents […] is a kind of family life show, where the very idea of confrontation is made all the more violent by the fact that I am as naked as possible in this book, more so than I have ever been. And I don’t see how I could be so again, and I probably wouldn’t wish to be…” Guibert always situates himself between reality and fiction, between documentary and imagination: this is precisely the rule of the game he adopts for Mes parents, a book “characterized precisely by this play between reality and fiction, thereby transgressing the autobiographical pact […] a novel in which I lie, in which I falsify reality through the writing of fiction” (p. 193).

A good copy with a fine provenance: Sylvie Genevoix.

A discreet but influential literary figure, Genevoix, after studying classics at the Sorbonne, began a career in publishing. She started at Plon as a press attaché for the 10/18 imprint, then coordinated the literary departments at Plon-Perrin-Julliard, becoming literary director at Julliard. From 1992 to 2005 she was literary director at Albin Michel, before being appointed to the Conseil supérieur de l’audiovisuel (CSA), where she worked on the development of local television and the accessibility of programs for people with disabilities. She also chaired the mission on the French language and Francophonie. She grew up at Les Vernelles, the family home acquired by her father, Maurice Genevoix, in 1927, where she developed a deep attachment to the Loire and to family memory, which she would evoke in La Maison de mon père (2001).