In his latest book, the French writer portrays a woman with cancer. A sideways way of telling his own life, since his wife, as well as himself, had cancer at the same time.

INTERVIEW

This is one of the books for this literary return. Sorj Chalandon, a reporter and reporter for Le Canard Enchaine , publishes a new novel: A fierce joy . A book featuring Jeanne, a bookseller, who will learn that she has cancer. A life that rocks for this character and a story that echoes the personal life of the novelist. Indeed, on Europe 1, Sorj Chalandon reveals that he and his wife were diagnosed with cancer last year.

"Eleven days later, I was diagnosed in turn"

"The reality is always stronger than the fiction," says the writer about his latest novel. "My wife had cancer in January 2018, and we decided, as in a war diary, to write everything, write down everything, to follow this cancer. (...) Eleven days later, I was diagnosed with my turn, "says Sorj Chalandon.

From then on, the author of the Fourth Wall had the choice: to talk about his illness or that of his wife. "Do I talk about cancer of man, virility, etc. It makes me gerber.What interested me was to put women in full light: to be Jeanne, to be my wife", confides- there.

"I kept my own cancer at bay"

Sorj Chalandon does not hide the fact that this writing process has made her feel better about her own illness. "I had my own cancer at bay before I had surgery," he says. "All the writing of what will happen with Jeanne, allowed me not to be sick in my head," he says. At the microphone of Europe 1, the writer announces that he is better. "It's a remission, but it's not painful and it makes you want to fight," he concludes.