Venus Khoury-Ghata, the elegance of cheerfully writing despair

Audio 29:00

The writer Venus Khoury-Ghata at her home (February 2021).

© Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint / RFI

By: Catherine Fruchon-Toussaint

32 min

Born in Lebanon, Vénus Khoury-Ghata has lived in Paris since 1972. Novelist and poet, she is the author of an important work which has won several literary prizes, including the Goncourt de la Poésie.

At Actes Sud, she has published a "Personal Anthology of Poetry" (1997) as well as several novels: "La Maestra" (1996), "Le Moine, l'Ottoman et la Femme du grand argentier" (2004), "Une house on the verge of tears ”(2005) and“ La Maison aux netties ”(2006).

His new novel "What remains of men" is a spirited fiction that tackles the serious topics of old age, loneliness and death. 

Publicity

"Diane, who has reached an age that one prefers to keep silent, goes to a funeral director's shop to buy a vault and finds herself with a place provided for two coffins ... Over the course of her bohemian life, Diane has loved men, got tired of some, was left by others, buried the one who counted the most. In short, she is alone, does not even have a cat, and it will not be said that this loneliness will pursue her in the world. There she is, among those still alive who have loved her, who would be ready to become her companion in the deep sleep.

In this quest, she is encouraged and gladly teased by her lifelong friend, Hélène, a widow who has gone to sell the villa on the Riviera in which her husband died, and who finds there an unexpected way to brighten her life.

This novel as serious as it is whimsical, which speaks of death, loneliness and sorrow with the elegance of lightness, offers two portraits of unworthy old ladies, deliciously accomplices, overwhelming and wonderfully inspiring. "

(Presentation of the Actes Sud editions)

Cover of the new novel by Venus Khoury-Ghata © Actes Sud

Also quoted:

"Your song is longer than your breath"

, interviews with Caroline Boidé, with the Ecriture editions and

"Moon is moon only for the cat",

with the Bruno Doucey editions.

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