Deschid in mod oficial rubrica “Interviu cu un scriitor”, care sper sa o pot tine lunar. Marc Levy, autorul romanelor precum “Hotul de Umbre”, “Si daca e adevarat” si “Copiii Libertatii” a fost dragut si a acceptat sa imi dea un interviu pentru a incepe aceasta rubrica.
“Anul 1998, îi oferă lui Marc Levy noi oportunități. El scrie “Și dacă e adevărat?”, pornind de la o povestire pe care a inventat-o pentru fiul său. Împins de sora lui care este scenaristă, el a trimis manuscrisul la Editions Robert Laffont la începutul lui 1999. Opt zile mai târziu, editura l-a anunțat că manuscrisul va fi publicat.
În 17 ianuarie 2000, ziua în care a apărut în Franța romanul „Și dacă e adevărat?”, Marc Levy demisionează din cabinetul său de arhitectură. Se mută la Londra unde trăiește actualmente și se consacră scrisului.
„Și dacă e adevărat?” cunoaște un imens succes în librării. Cartea este publicată în 36 de limbi: din China, unde este tradus în mandarină și cantoneză, trecând prin Statele Unite, Japonia, Regatul Unit, Portugalia, Chile, Argentina, Brazilia și, evident, până în România. În Franța s-a vândut în peste 3.500.000 de exemplare, fiind cea mai vândută carte a anului 2000 (conform publicației Livres Hebdo).
Cel de-al doilea roman al lui Marc Levy, „Unde ești?” (Ed. Trei, 2006), publicat în noiembrie 2001, precum și cel de al treilea roman, Sept jours pour une éternité, publicat în februarie 2003, au confirmat acest succes: ele se află în prezent în topul celor mai vândute cărți, fiind traduse acum în lumea întreagă.”
NH: Thank you for granting me this interview. My first question would be when did you start writing and what made you start writing?
ML: I started to write when I was 17 and then I stopped when I was 18 after writing my first manuscript, because I found it very bad and I threw it away. Then I had to work and I didn’t have time for writing. I started back writing when I was 39. That’s when I started to write “If only it were true.”
NH: In your books you talk about love and friendship. Do you think these themes are still important in a world where we often rely more on our gadgets than on those close to us?
ML: I think friendship is very, very important in life. As a matter of fact I think friendship is as important in life as love can be. It’s something that tremendously changed every life, to be able to rely on true friendship. I think it also requires a lot of dedication as a love story does. It’s a very, very important topic of life.
NH: Where do you find your sources of inspiration for your novels?
ML: Most of the times it’s very, very difficult to tell precisely where does a story come from. First of all you never remember and you can’t remember exactly when an idea reaches you mainly because an idea is made of different enlightenments. But I would say that in most of the cases it comes from small things of life precisely because one of the most things when you are a writer, I believe, is to pay a lot of attention to everything around you. Listen a lot… Look a lot… Watch a lot… and it’s much more important to listen and watch than to talk and try to show off.
NH: So far you published twelve books. Do you have a favorite among them or do you like them all the same?
ML: My favorite book is not among the ones I have written myself. I would say… it’s very, very hard to answer that question. No I don’t… Maybe “Children of Freedom” because it is a true story based on the story of my father and his friends. It was the only novel where none of the characters were fictional. It probably changed a lot for me…
NH: Do you have a favorite writer or writers whose works you cherish above all?
ML: There are many, many, many of them. It’s always scared me a lot to answer that question because every time I do so I realize I’ve forgotten some others. There is a huge variety of writers. American writers… French writers… Italian writers…Spanish writers… I try to read with a very open mind and not to focus my reading in one genre as I’ve tried not to focus my writing in one genre. So I have many, many writers that I like. If you want me to name one or two or three I could just think of Hemingway, Steinbeck etc, etc. If you ask me the same question in an hour I would probably pick other names.
NH: What is your opinion on the young people of this period and their relationship with books and literature? Do you think books are still important for them or they find it a necessary evil?
ML: Well I can’t answer for them, I’m not in their shoes to answer for them. I think reading is important for everyone. Because the information we get through the news is very preformatted. It’s very arranged. All the magazines and all the newspapers are globally saying the same thing at the same time. I think a book offers a wide and much deeper freedom of seeing the life that surrounds us with a kind of perspective. Dictators… one of the very first things they do is to burn books and I do not think they do that for nothing. They do it because one of the keys of individual freedom is the ability to read a book.
NH: How do you see literature as a whole?
ML: Almost what I just told you. Literature is the land of freedom and literature is not the land of excellence. That’s the purpose of the people who also try to contain literature between walls. You should not be scared to read whatever you want to read and certainly not because your neighbor has told you not to read it, because it’s not good enough or it’s not whatever enough. Literature is the land of freedom. It’s all about making you think, making you feel and making you feel that you are someone different from the others. It’s very different from watching movies. Most of the time movies are intended to be watched by hundreds of people, in the same room, at the same time. Reading is a matter of individuality. So try to keep it as much as you can.
NH: After you left your country, were there moments when you thought about returning and settling back in France?
ML: I love very much living abroad. I think it’s very important in the work I do. As I told you the purpose of a writer is to tell stories. I think that somehow, being abroad is a part of going over the world and seeing the world with a different perspective. It’s like, for a fisherman, going at sea…
NH: Do you have a favorite place in the world?
ML: That would be probably with my family, the place where I would be the most happy. It would be when I am with my family and my friends, but also when I travel because I love that and I’ve always needed that.
NH: Do you have anything in store for your fans in the near future?
ML: I just finished a book two days ago and that book will be published in France two months from now. I can’t yet share the title or the story, but it’s a new book and that will be my 13th book. The other thing that I can share with you is that I really hope to come to Bucharest during fall of this year or at least spring of next year.
Curand voi posta traducerea in romana, dar nu am avut timp astazi sa fac acest lucru.
Premiul I: “Sacrificiul din miezul iernii” de Mons Kallentoft (m-am gandit ca este potrivit premiul luand in considerare frigul de afara )
