Invited on the Culture Médias program to talk about her new novel "Les Aérostats", the author Amélie Nothomb shared a difficult experience she had at university, and shared by Ange, the heroine of her latest book.

INTERVIEW

Brilliant, hypermnesic, studious ... The image sent by the author Amélie Nothomb could suggest that her studies in philology went off without a hitch. However, she experienced hard times there, as she confided to Philippe Vandel's microphone. Events that she took up in her new novel "Les Aérostats", released on August 19 at Albin Michel. Ange, his heroine, saw the same public humiliation there. 

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"Serious as a pope, the vitality of an overcooked leek"

Amélie Nothomb and her character, both philology students, brave their shyness to ask a question during a lecture. "I thought I was transparent, until the day when, speaking in class, I was insulted by everyone", explains the novelist. The one she describes as "the most beautiful boy" of her promotion is then written "But what a bitch!". An insult taken up by all his comrades. "The whole auditor shouted 'Bitch!' That hit me hard."

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The author is however not kind to the student she was, and who inspired her main character. "At 19, I was as serious as a pope, I had the vitality of an overcooked leek. Apart from reading, there really wasn't much in my life," she describes coldly.