INTERVIEW
Vincent Villeminot, author of We Are the Spark , published in 2019 by Pocket Jeunes, has found a way to keep the French in suspense, while confinement is extended until April 15. The writer, who specializes in children's literature, publishes each evening, online and free of charge, a chapter of his novel entitled The Island, the story of eight confined adolescents. Invited to the microphone of Europe 1, he tells this adventure.
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"Without electricity, without internet, without drinking water"
"I started a novel a year ago during a residency on the island of Aix which was a story of confinement", he explains on Europe 1. "Then, on the first day of confinement I I told myself that we should open up a moment of reading to those who want it. " This is how he embarked on an unprecedented adventure, that of meeting every evening at 6 p.m. with readers, young and old, to follow the adventures of characters who also live confinement.
"These are eight kids who find themselves one morning without their boat which must take them to college on the continent (...) They become aware of the gravity of the situation, of the fact that we will have to live for a few days and then a few weeks alone on the island. No electricity, no internet, no drinking water, "he says.
Available online
"There are a hundred or so on my page to comment together (the chapter editor's note) but there are thousands of people who read it every night at the same time. It's a great moment of shared reading", explains l 'author. The novel, split into soap operas, can be found through a link shared on the social networks (Facebook, Instagram, Twitter) of the publisher, Pocket jeunesse.
Every day the publisher announces on its networks the publication of the new chapter and the link on which to go:
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Teachers even relay this initiative for their students: "I have echoes from teachers who have put it online on their digital workspace. I am starting to get echoes from middle school and high school students who read it every day! "exclaims Vincent Villeminot.
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And for the record, the book is not finished. If at the start the author was 15 days ahead of writing, the reality is quite different today: "A soap opera is not the same rhythm as a novel. I only have two, three days of 'advance (...) There is my editor, three four people who work almost full time on the project so that it does not get stuck reading, "he explains.