PARIS.- Impossible to imagine the literary season in France without it. For 34 years, Amélie Nothomb has published a new novel every August that is always among the best-selling books.
Translated into several languages, the Belgian writer explains in an interview with AFP the idea that gave rise to her new book “L’adolescence du perroquet” (which could be translated into Spanish as “The Adolescence of the Parrot”), and reveals how she continues to enjoy writing even though she considers it “terribly difficult.”
– Why write a novel whose protagonist is a parrot?
I have a fascination with birds. They fascinate me for two reasons: their ability to fly and to communicate through sounds.
The parrot is the undisputed champion of words: it speaks and understands what it says; He screams and his screams can be extremely harmful; and he can also be an exceptional singer.
Jo, the parrot in the novel, is a gray Gabon parrot, the most intelligent species and the one that speaks best, but also the most aggressive and perverse. It is the most interesting.
– Does your novel, which you present as a story, have a moral?
I’m not sure. If it does, it would be that love is a feeling that does not obey any morality.
Alban, the narrator, feels a deep love for that bird, but it is not reciprocated. It is a situation that many people experience. Love is not something that can be demanded.
– You publish a novel for the literary season every year since 1992. Do you still feel the same emotion?
The excitement is even greater. I feel like someone who has been living a great love story for 34 years. It’s a miracle, but nothing is guaranteed. I want to live up to that love story with my readers, and that requires great dedication.
– What profile do your readers have?
From what I have been able to observe, my readers are of all types: very educated people and others who are not so educated, young and old, men and women. There is no single profile.
If you ask me what you like about my novels, I don’t know. The style? I would like to believe so. But they also often tell me that there is a strong identification with my characters. Many readers tell me: “I recognized myself in that character.”
– How does it work?
I write three novels a year. As I write them, I have no idea which one will end up being published. At the end of winter I reread them and then I make a decision.
I organize myself so I can write four hours a day. I start at 4:00 in the morning and finish at 8:00. Then I go to the Albin Michel publishing house, where I respond to the numerous letters I receive.
– Why do you write so early?
I need to start the day with what costs me the most. It is an excellent discipline. Writing every morning seems like a huge task to me, it is terribly difficult. And the more I do it, the harder it seems. But that’s precisely why I like it. I wouldn’t give that pleasure to anyone.
Over the years I have learned to physically feel that place in my brain from which I must write, right on the border between madness and meaning.
The most difficult thing is to find the words capable of reproducing the sound that one carries inside. Avoid false notes. As time has passed I have tried to refine that sound more and more. Since my first novels it has been greatly simplified. The goal is not to write less, but to write with greater purity. Maybe in 30 years I will reach the haiku, the philosopher’s stone.
