Paris (AFP)

Gabriel Matzneff, writer targeted by an investigation for rape of minors under 15, sent to handpicked buyers his latest book, not found for other readers, and self-published for lack of publisher.

"Vanessavirus", title chosen by this 84-year-old novelist, who is to be tried in September 2021 in France for "apology" of pedophilia, describes in some 85 pages the state of mind of a man ostracized from society after the publication of another book, "Le Consentement" by Vanessa Springora.

In "Le Consentement", sold 160,000 copies in France alone since January 2020, the editor recounted her relationship under the influence in the 80s, when she was 14 years old with a man who is 35 more.

Vanessa Springora's book talks about "G.", but makes Gabriel Matzneff perfectly recognizable by citing the title of one of his books.

No need to go to bookstores for your latest title.

To have this self-published work in your hands, you had to be part of the list of trusted people contacted for a private subscription.

According to AFP information, all editors approached by Gabriel Matzneff refused the book without reading it.

The risk of a boycott campaign is not worth, according to them, the hypothetical success of scandal that such a book could bring.

The author won the Renaudot for the test in 2013, but his sales figures have been weak for more than 20 years.

Vanessa Springora has already made it known several times that she no longer wanted to hear anything from him.

"No comment," she said of the book when it was announced for release two weeks ago.

On a photo sent to AFP by a reader who insisted on remaining anonymous, and who did not buy the book himself, appears the cover where the book is described as a "story", with the name of a publisher now defunct, "At the expense of an author".

- Secret list of readers -

Two prints were offered: ordinary at 100 euros, luxury at 650 euros.

The author has planned a first printing of 200 copies.

Buying the book has been a form of support for a man deprived of income since his publishers indefinitely "suspended" the sale of his books and the National Book Center struck off recipients of a low-income writers' allowance.

The list of subscribers should remain a closely guarded secret.

One of them, contacted by AFP, and who had not yet received the copy intended for him on Wednesday, also wished to remain anonymous.

"I like rare and sulphurous books. All the publishers have closed the door on him, and I said to myself that I would like to have him," he explained.

"The way Gabriel Matzneff has been treated for a year sickens me. All these people who have never read a line from him, and who have come across him, it's ridiculous."

Gabriel Matzneff, according to the source who, on the other hand, read the book, pays tribute to "five unwavering supporters": Alain Finkielkraut, Bernard-Henri Lévy, Catherine Millet, Dominique Fernandez, Franz-Olivier Giesbert.

The philosopher Bernard-Henri Lévy, who has done several laudatory reviews of Gabriel Matzneff's books in the past, did not comment on the subject after "Le Consentement".

The novelist Catherine Millet had declared in June that she did not regret having signed a petition launched by Mr. Matzneff in 1977 for the decriminalization of sexual relations with minors.

Academician Dominique Fernandez had signed a forum in January 2020 against "the good conscience" of those who attacked the writer.

As for the journalist Franz-Olivier Giesbert and the philosopher Alain Finkielkraut, in January 2020 they put the seriousness of the case into perspective.

The first had estimated that "we can not throw names in the pasture", and the second that "the Springora case is not a case of pedophilia".

© 2021 AFP