"I have never been a victim of racism": when Riad Sattouf recounts his arrival in France

INTERVIEW

Born of a Syrian father and a Breton mother, the author of comics Riad Sattouf spoke about his childhood and adolescence, Thursday on Europe 1, on the occasion of the release of the fifth volume of his series autobiographical

.

This volume traces the young years of Riad Sattouf, when he lived in Rennes, Brittany, between 1992 and 1994. "I have never been a victim of racism in France", he says.

"I was lucky," adds the author of

.

"Some people, obviously, haven't had the same story as me."

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"The book was for me an essential good"

In this new volume of 

, Riad Sattouf of course dwells on the history of his family.

His career is that of a man torn between France and Syria;

he who grew up in his father's family, in a small Syrian village where poverty and peasantry reigned.

But Riad Sattouf says he "was lucky to have been able to express himself" in an artistic way very early on.

His Breton grandmother sent him comics, like

, when he was only 4 or 5 years old.

These "thanks to these books", that he became the renowned author that he is today, according to him.

"The book was for me an essential good in my construction", he smiles.

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"I love the freedom that there is in France to make books"

When he arrived in France, Riad Sattouf therefore chose “another identity”, that of “artistic expression”.

A successful bet, which the author associates with the values ​​of the Hexagon: "I love the freedom that there is in France to make books."

"My experience of France is absolutely not a racist country. It is certainly a country where there are racists, a problem of racism in certain aspects of society," he observes. -he.

But, "I haven't come across a country that I like better than here," he concludes.