By publishing her first novel "The chest of drawers of colors", singer Olivia Ruiz did not expect to become a bookstore success in a few months.
Guest of “Musique!”, She talks about the messages received from readers, which move her even more than the compliments on her music.
INTERVIEW
100,000 copies.
The sales figures of
La Commode aux tiroirs de couleurs
, Olivia Ruiz's first novel, surprised many people.
And its author the first.
But what she expected even less is the avalanche of messages received on social networks from people who have read her book.
An unprecedented emotion that she explains to Émilie Mazoyer's microphone on the
Music program!
.
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Comments more moving than those on his music
Olivia Ruiz explains that many readers write to her on social networks, often to share personal stories born from reading
La Commode aux drawoirs de couleurs.
"These are people who spoke again to members of their family with whom they were angry, because they understood things," she recalls.
"Other people who have traveled 600 kilometers to go to their family's land to understand things. Others who just say thank you because they feel less alone."
These messages move the singer a lot.
"I just cry reading the comments on Instagram and Facebook," she says.
"These feedbacks give me more emotion than I ever had with my records."
Perhaps because this is the first time that Olivia Ruiz has also addressed the history of her family head-on.
Perhaps also because the novel allows the subject to be dealt with more in depth.
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A tribute to all the exiles of the world
This emotion is all the stronger as the author anticipated "many reasons" for not reading her first novel, which she initially did not want to publish.
"There is necessarily a priori when a singer releases a novel" says Olivia Ruiz.
"Which I totally understand".
Beyond his public status, the artist imagined that the subject would attract little.
"This story of the Spanish exile and this terrible civil war orchestrated by Franco is still unknown," she observes.
"It was a magnificent surprise".
With this book, the artist is delighted to have been able to lift a taboo common to many families of Spanish refugees.
"It does me good to have finally had the opportunity to pay tribute to this trip" she said modestly about the exile of her grandparents.
"But also to all the trips and to all the exiles who do not manage (or have difficulty) to build themselves with this amputation that is uprooting, when it is a necessity or an obligation."
Olivia Ruiz's Spanish roots, already present occasionally in her music, are also at the heart of her new creation, the musical show
À bouches cousues
, presented in November at the Bouffes du Nord theater, then on tour in France.