📚 🚶An exclusive interview with our February author David Foenkinos
And details for this evening's Zoom
Dear walking book clubbers,
Thank you for a wonderful - if freezing - walking book club on Hampstead Heath yesterday. Thanks to Alex for this great pic! It was such a delight to share our thoughts on and enthusiasm for this special book. If you weren’t able to make it, and are intrigued by the book, why not join us for an informal Zoom this evening at 8-8.40pm (details below)?
I loved hearing the many interesting comparisons and links to documentaries, books, plays and more from you all in the walk - thank you! I’m going to post them on Friday’s Live Discussion Thread - so don’t forget to tune in: 1.30-2pm this Friday 3rd March (the email link will arrive in your inbox just before) for 15 mins chat about the book and then 15 mins on what else we’ve been enjoying. Feel free to look it up or comment on it afterwards too.
Thank you to Lisa, who pointed me towards THIS ASTONISHING RESOURCE from Amsterdam’s Jewish Cultural Quarter, where you can see Life? or Theatre? in its entirety. For more links about Charlotte Salomon and her life and work, please check out this month’s earlier newsletters.
Zoom details
Everyone is invited to join us this evening at 8pm to discuss Charlotte by David Foenkinos, translated by Sam Taylor. You don’t need to have read the book, feel free just to tune in and listen to the discussion.
If you are able to book via Eventbrite, that’s helpful as it allows you to pay and gives me an idea of numbers, but if you’d rather join directly, that’s fine.
N.B. There were some issues joining the room last time, so in case you need it the passcode is always the author’s surname (so this time it’s “Foenkinos”).
Join direct: Zoom link HERE Meeting ID: 782 2845 3151 Passcode: Foenkinos
Our Q&A with David Foenkinos
I’m thrilled to publish our first exclusive author Q&A. Some thank yous are definitely in order:
To David Foenkinos for taking time off during his vacation to answer our questions.
To the wonderful Kate, who kindly translated David’s answers from French, which required far more skill than my foggy memories of GCSE. I’ve posted Kate’s translation below, but if anyone would like to see the original, please feel free to email me for it.
And thank you to the many of you who contributed questions. A total team effort! Here we go:
Emily’s Walking Book Club: Firstly, we were intrigued by the moments of your own life that came into the book, and the feeling of writing the book being something of a personal quest:
Why do you think Charlotte’s work and her story held so much resonance for you at that particular time of your life?
David Foenkinos: People sometimes talk about a lightning bolt, and this idea of meeting something that already existed in us. I felt that I had encountered the work that I was waiting for. The emotional shock was absolute. Immediately, I experienced such a fascination for her artistic genius, her mad modernity, while at the same time being devastated by her tragic life.
EWBC: How long did it take you to research and write it?
DF: It took me eight years. With some breaks. But I kept coming back to it all the time. It created an obsession. But I lacked sources and I just didn’t know how to write this book.
EWBC: How did you balance your own story with Charlotte’s? Were you ever tempted to put in more of your personal life? Did you always know this personal element would be in it?
DF: No, I began to talk about my connection to her after six years. I never write about myself in my books, but in this instance I understood that I didn’t just want to tell Charlotte’s story, but also why she affected me so much. It is an emotional biography.
EWBC: Many of us admired your beautifully restrained style of writing:
How much of this is your general writing style and how much were you consciously holding back in recounting such an emotional story?
DF: I abandoned the book so many times, I didn’t know how to write it, until I reached the point where I wrote like this in order to breathe. I did think that it would be difficult to read, but it was the only way I could get close to Charlotte. Through little touches.
EWBC: Did you need to find a new way of writing for this particular story?
DF: Each subject has its own breath, yes. In this case, this way of writing was critical. It saved the book. And it brought me closer to the fugitive and frenetic experience of Charlotte’s life.
EWBC: Specifically, why did you choose this particular way of setting out the text, with each sentence on a new line?
DF: It’s really a question of breathing. I found Charlotte’s life too suffocating.
EWBC: About the book’s hybrid form:
Did you always know that this would be a novel?
DF: No, I considered writing a play, or a film. I wanted to write about her, but I did not know how.
EWBC: Were you ever tempted to write a straight biography?
DF: No, that’s not me. I am not a journalist. However, I did go to Berlin plenty of times, following in Charlotte’s footsteps. Just to be there. Without doing anything in particular.
EWBC: What kind of freedoms did the fictional side give you, and how about the limitations?
DF: I had to stick to fiction, because we don’t know everything about Charlotte’s life. I tried to stick as closely as possible to what I imagined of her.
EWBC: We’ve had several questions about the relationship between Charlotte and her grandfather:
Was Charlotte sexually abused by her grandfather? It seemed ambiguous in the novel.
DF: Yes, I think so. But I’m not certain. The fact that the grandfather’s two daughters committed suicide makes me believe this hypothesis. And perhaps the suicide by ice water was for self-purification.
EWBC: Did the grandfather abuse other women in the family, contributing towards their suicides? (This question was inspired by this interview with the artist Chantal Joffe.) And if this wasn’t the reason for the suicides, were you able to find out why there were so many suicides in the family?
DF: It might be genetic. This exists – passing on negative traits. And we have to add to that the tragedy in the story.
EWBC: Were there other families in Berlin at the time experiencing the same high numbers of suicides?
DF: Yes, a lot of Jews committed suicide, to take charge of their death.
EWBC: Did Charlotte poison her grandfather?
DF: That’s what she herself said. And I believe her. He stopped her from living, and just after his death she decided to get married.
EWBC: We loved meeting so many fascinating people in the book, such as Karl Singer, Alfred Wolfsohn, Ottilie Moore and others …
Did you vanish into many research worm holes while writing this book?
DF: Yes, I spent years researching. And later I was sent other information by post or Facebook.
EWBC: Was it hard to stay disciplined and remain focussed on Charlotte?
DF: No, I didn’t think about anything other than her. That’s the essential tone of the book.
EWBC: Do you think you might revisit any of these figures in your future work?
DF: No, I can’t. Charlotte needs to be unique amongst my books.
Looking ahead
I’m hard at work programming our Spring/Summer books … watch this space.
Next week you’ll receive our newsletter introducing our astonishing March book, Akenfield by Ronald Blythe. Here are the links to book your tickets to our March events:
At THE DAUNT BOOKS FESTIVAL: Friday 17th March, 10-11.30am, setting off from Daunt Books Marylebone, 83-84 Marylebone High Street, W1U 4QW and walking around Regent’s Park, £5
On the Heath: Sunday 26th March, 11.30-1pm, setting off from Daunt Books Hampstead, 51 South End Road, NW3 2QB, £5-15
On Zoom: Monday 27th March, 8-8.40pm, £1-10
Live Discussion Thread: Friday 31st March, 1.30-2pm
Buy Akenfield from Daunt Books HERE and receive 10% off using the code WBC at checkout, or just tell them you’re in the group if you’re buying it in the shop.
Happy reading!
Emily