Delphine de Vigan

Delphine de Vigan
Le Livre sur la Place, 2015
Le Livre sur la Place, 2015
Born (1966-03-01) 1 March 1966 (age 58)
Boulogne-Billancourt, France
Pen nameLou Delvig
OccupationNovelist
LanguageFrench
NationalityFrench
Period2001–present
Notable worksNo and Me
Nothing Holds Back the Night
Notable awardsPrix Goncourt des Lycéens Prix des libraires (2009)
PartnerFrançois Busnel
Children2

Delphine de Vigan (born 1 March 1966) is an internationally known French novelist who has won several awards.[1]

Life and works

De Vigan wrote her first four novels by night while working at a public opinion firm in Alfortville by day. Her first published work, Jours sans faim (2001), was published under the pseudonym Lou Delvig, although since then she has written under her own name.[2]

Her breakthrough work was No et moi (2007), in which she depicts the life of a young homeless woman from the point of view of a highly gifted thirteen-year-old girl. The book which won the Rotary International Prize[3] in 2009 as well as France's prestigious Prix des libraires.[4] The novel was translated into twenty languages and a film adaptation was released in 2010 (No et moi directed by Zabou Breitman).[2] Following the book's success, she became a full-time professional writer.[5]

De Vigan's central theme is the trauma and the damage that adult behaviour does to children. In 2011, her novel Rien ne s'oppose à la nuit (Nothing holds back the night), which deals with a family coping with a woman's bipolar disorder, won another clutch of French literary prizes, including the prix du roman Fnac,[6] the prix Roman France Télévisions,[7] the Grand prix des lectrices de Elle,[8] and the Prix Renaudot des lycéens.[2]

In 2015, she received the Prix Renaudot[9] as well as the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens for D'après une histoire vraie (Based on a true story).[10] In it, the question of what truth or fiction means in the process of writing is addressed. The author befriends an enigmatic woman who slowly becomes more and more like her, while her own ability to write slips away. Roman Polański made a film of the book named Based on a True Story in 2017.[11]

In 2018, her novel Les Loyautés (Loyalties) was published, which tells the story of young Theo, who suffers from difficult family circumstances after his parents' divorce. Out of excessive demands, he begins to drink alcohol in large quantities. He falls into a fatal downward spiral, into which he drags his best friend.[12][13]

In her 2019 novel Les Gratitudes (Gratitudes), de Vigan tells of a woman who loses her speech in old age. She thinks back to the couple who rescued her, the child Mishka, from the Nazis at the time, and is increasingly filled with a desire to thank them for it after the fact.[14][15]

In her most recent novel, The Children Are Kings (2022), Vigan uses a detective story to address the lives of child influencers who are marketed to by their mother on YouTube.[16] The filming of the adaptation of the novel is currently in preparation by Disney+.[17]

Bibliography

Novels

  • Jours sans faim, Éditions Grasset, 2001 (under the pseudonym Lou Delvig); (Days Without Hunger)
  • Les Jolis Garçons, JC Lattès, 2005 (The Pretty Boys)
  • Un soir de décembre, Jean-Claude Lattès, 2005 (One Night in December)
  • No et moi, Jean-Claude Lattès, 2007 (No and me, Bloomsbury 2010)
  • Sous le manteau, Flammarion, 2008 (contributor)
  • Les Heures souterraines, Jean-Claude Lattès, 2009 (Underground Time, Bloomsbury 2011)
  • Rien ne s'oppose à la nuit, Jean-Claude Lattès, 2011 (Nothing Holds Back the Night, Bloomsbury 2014)[18]
  • D'après une histoire vraie, Jean-Claude Lattès, 2015 (Based on a True Story, Bloomsbury 2017)[10]
  • Les Loyautés, Jean-Claude Lattès, 2018 (Loyalties, Bloomsbury 2019)[12]
  • Les Gratitudes, Jean-Claude Lattès, 2019 (Gratitude, Bloomsbury 2021)
  • Les enfants sont rois, Gallimard, 2021 (The Children Are Kings, 2022)

Screenplays

Decorations

Footnotes

  1. ^ "Delphine de Vigan". international literature festival berlin. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  2. ^ a b c d "Biographie et actualités de Delphine de Vigan France Inter" (in French). France Inter. January 2014. Archived from the original on 12 May 2014. Retrieved 6 July 2014.
  3. ^ a b chroniqueslitteraires. "Prix du Rotary International 2009" (in French). Retrieved 14 May 2021.
  4. ^ a b Librairies Sorcières. "librairies-sorcieres.fr" (in French). Retrieved 14 May 2021.
  5. ^ Verdier, Caroline (2016). "Delphine de Vigan's Pathographies: Writing as a Response to Trauma and Illness". Journal of Literature and Trauma Studies. 5 (2): 87–103. doi:10.1353/jlt.2016.0023. ISSN 2045-4740.
  6. ^ a b magazine, Le Point (31 August 2011). "Le Prix du roman Fnac décerné à Delphine de Vigan". Le Point (in French). Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  7. ^ a b "Le Prix Roman France Télévisions 2011 à Delphine de Vigan". L'Express (in French). 3 November 2011. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  8. ^ "Une journée avec Delphine de Vigan – Elle". Elle (in French). 15 June 2012. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  9. ^ a b "Le prix Renaudot à " D'après une histoire vraie ", de Delphine de Vigan", Le Monde, 3 November 2015, retrieved 14 May 2021
  10. ^ a b Merritt, Stephanie (30 April 2017). "Based on a True Story by Delphine de Vigan review – a novel take on the writer's own life". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  11. ^ Briscoe, Joanna (15 April 2017). "Based on a True Story by Delphine de Vigan review – disturbing metafictional tale". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  12. ^ a b Myerson, Julie (13 January 2019). "Loyalties by Delphine de Vigan – review". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  13. ^ Hughes, Sarah (4 January 2019). "Delphine de Vigan on new novel Loyalties: 'I'm interested in insidious violence, the kind that doesn't leave traces'". i (newspaper). Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  14. ^ East, Ben (10 January 2021). "Gratitude – reviews". The Observer. ISSN 0029-7712. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  15. ^ "Gratitude: Powerful portrait of old age resonates long after reading". The Irish Times. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  16. ^ "Delphine de Vigan: "The children are kings" – Culture". 10 May 2022. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  17. ^ Jenkins, Betty (1 July 2023). "Disney+ will serialize the novel 'Children are kings' by Delphine de Vigan". 24newsbulletin. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  18. ^ Kline, Nancy (9 May 2014). "A Mother in Absentia". The New York Times. ISSN 0362-4331. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  19. ^ Bradshaw, Peter (27 May 2017). "Based on a True Story review – Roman Polanski's tall tale falls flat". The Guardian. ISSN 0261-3077. Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  20. ^ Actu/Monde du livre (3 February 2006). "Delphine de Vigan lauréate du prix Saint-Valentin" (in French). Retrieved 14 May 2021.
  21. ^ "Harmonie Mutuelles décerne son Prix Solidarité 2009, au roman"No et moi" de Delphine de Vigan". News Assurances Pro (in French). 6 March 2009. Retrieved 16 May 2021.
  22. ^ magazine, Le Point (31 May 2012). "Le Grand Prix des lectrices de Elle couronne Delphine de Vigan". Le Point (in French). Retrieved 1 July 2023.
  23. ^ "Prix Goncourt des lycéens : Delphine de Vigan lauréate" (in French). 1 December 2015. Retrieved 14 May 2021.
  24. ^ "Culture Communication". Archived from the original on 5 June 2016. Retrieved 3 April 2016.