Anna Gavalda (French writer) - books and quotes from books. Archive of the blog "VO! circle of books" Anna Gavalda works

The stories and novels of Anna Gavalda evoke a fan of emotions, from delight to rejection. As readers note, in the books of the Frenchwoman, the characters “do not procrastinate feelings, do not scream about them,” but each page is permeated with love and family warmth. Comparison with the famous fellow countrymen Michel Houellebecq is flattering for the writer, but, as Anna said in an interview, she "does something completely different."

Childhood and youth

Anna Gavalda has Russian roots. The great-grandfather of the writer, a jeweler by profession, lived in St. Petersburg. After the October Revolution, when private craftsmen dealing with jewelry were left without work, he went abroad. Subsequent generations of the family grew up in France, but retained the presence of Russian culture.

Anna was born in December 1970, west of Paris, in the commune of Boulogne-Billancourt. The first attempt at writing, in fact, was school essays, which teachers, admiring the brilliance of the language and style of presentation, read aloud to Gavald's classmates as a reward for exemplary behavior.

Anna's parents divorced when her daughter was a teenager. Part of the girl's biography fell on the aunt's family, in which 13 children were brought up. Then Anna and her sister and 2 brothers were added to them. And the press calls this whole large company a boarding house, which surprises the writer a lot. Large families, according to Gavald, are the norm for the traditional Catholic way of life.

The love of writing led Anna to the Sorbonne University, the Faculty of Modern Language and Literature. Although at first the girl chose natural science and wrote her first story at the entrance exams.

The future writer gained life experience, moonlighting as a cashier and a waitress. Such a school, according to Gavald, is very useful: for those who have nothing to remember, books turn out to be boring. After graduating, Anna got a job in college teaching French.

Literature

Anna received her first recognition of her talent at the age of 17, when she won the competition for the best love letter. The reward - a trip to Venice - had to be given to the owner of the rented apartment as payment for the accommodation. Then there were several more successful competitions. And finally, Gavalda decided to publish the works that readers liked so much.

Often, some bright event in life, with a positive or negative connotation, becomes the impetus for creativity. For Anna, it was a divorce from her husband. The woman was very upset by the separation and hid her own thoughts and actions behind other people's thoughts and actions. As a result, the short stories "Permission", "Junior", "This Man and This Woman", "Catgut" and others were born, united in the collection "I would like someone to wait for me somewhere ...".

After a long search for publishers, the work of an unknown author ventured to print a publishing house with the meaningful name "Amateur". In 2000, the reader's jury awarded Anna the Grand prix RTL-Lire for the book, but that was only the beginning.

Interest in the forgotten genre of short stories flared up with renewed vigor when the later published novels Just Together and I Loved Her disappeared from store shelves. I loved him." The total circulation of bestsellers exceeded 5 million copies and brought Gavald over € 30 million.

The writer's work resonated in the hearts of filmmakers. In 2007, Claude Berry made a film adaptation of Just Together. She starred in the film. The director's film version of "I loved him" in 2009 was offered by Zabu Brightman. Anna herself refrained from evaluating cinematic works, she only said that "these are other feelings, another story."

In 2002, the book "35 kilos of hope" was published, which in France was positioned as a children's book. Gavalda admitted that she wrote it in memory of a student whom she underestimated when she was still working at the school. However, he advises adults to read the work, who have forgotten about the dreams of childhood and youth. The novel has also been made into a film.

The novel "Consolation game of petanque" is plotted with the author's close people, but has nothing to do with them personally. Anna's brother often came to Russia for work. And the protagonist of the book is a French architect who is leading a project in Moscow. The news of the death of a friend's mother, with whom the man was once in love, breaks into his well-established, long-established life.

"A Sip of Freedom" reminds readers of the atmosphere of their home, of blood ties and the love of dear people. The heroes of the story are a brother and 2 sisters who do not get along with each other. A shared trip brings members of the same family together and provides a chance to have a heart-to-heart talk.

The character of "Matilda", bearing the same name, is a girl who strikes the reader with selfish and sometimes inadequate actions. Only a chance meeting pulls the heroine out of the seemingly prosperous world of promiscuity and alcohol. The main idea of ​​the novel is that while waiting for the illusory prince, you can miss happiness, not seeing a good heart behind your own pride in someone who is just nearby.

Personal life

Anna has been divorced for a long time, she does not like to talk about her ex-husband, but she supports communication. In addition, the children - son Louis and daughter Felicite - spend a month of the year with their father. Nothing has changed in her personal life even after world fame came to the writer. Gavalda even jokes that things only got worse.

Anna's family lives in the Parisian suburbs, in their own house. There are many animals on the farm, which, according to the woman, make existence alive and simply create an atmosphere. Gavalda considers himself a happy person, because, by and large, he does what he wants. There is no need to push around in transport, to argue with superiors. On the other side,

“I am ready to give a lot in order to have colleagues with whom you can quarrel, drink coffee, chat, not think about some things.”

Anna finds her writing inspiration in a constant feeling of depression, personal imperfection and the shortcomings of the world around her.

The woman looks younger than her age. The writer claims that she is not interested in sports and does not control nutrition. He loves to swim very much, and since this occupation is tedious and boring, all sorts of thoughts come into his head, from which the next work grows.

Anna Gavalda now

Anna Gavalda's latest book for today is a collection of short stories "I Confess", which was released in the summer of 2017. The Russian-language edition was released in 2018. The book was a welcome gift to the reading community as the author returned to her favorite short genre, which is "much more precious than novels." In stories, Anna admitted, it is more difficult to deceive, the talent of the writer comes through more clearly in them. In addition, there are no long backstories, the reader immediately gets into the thick of things.

7 stories are written on behalf of 7 people in a very lively, not grandiloquent style with an admixture of jargon. The topics covered by the writer are very diverse. This is a woman's search for her place in relationships with a man, including intimate ones, about how time irrevocably flies and how to survive the loss. Anna also resorts to her favorite method - to speak on behalf of a man.

Life did not spare each of the heroes, they experience pain and loneliness, they are tired of pretending that everything is fine. The spiritual strings are so taut that they force you to be frank with the first person you meet, because, as it seems to them, the tension will weaken and if not hope, then at least strength for a new day will appear.

Now Gavalda is writing another novel and at the same time a screenplay. The writer said that she mentally constantly conducts a dialogue with the heroine not as with a literary character, but with a living person. In terms of content, this will be a story about a woman who is surrounded only by men in life. And Anna, as the author, wonders what is left in the main character of the feminine.

Bibliography

• 1999 - “I would like someone to be waiting for me somewhere ...”
• 2002 - "35 kilos of hope"
• 2003 - “I loved her. I loved him"
• 2004 - "Just Together"
• 2008 - "Consolation game of petanque"
• 2010 - "A sip of freedom"
• 2012 - "Life Stories"
• 2013 - "Billy"
• 2014 - "Jan"
• 2014 - "Matilda"
• 2017 - "I confess"

Quotes

“I write because I was made for it. God made me this way, and I'm trying."

“When I see a woman on the subway reading Dan Brown, I have much more respect for her than for the “intellectual” sitting next to him who plays a computer toy.”

“Any creative person is not a very balanced person. Because a balanced person lives his life instead of inventing it. You only write when something bothers you."

“The most difficult thing is to write the first phrase. Then everything goes by itself and my characters become my friends.

France

Anna Gavalda(fr. Anna Gavalda; genus. December 9, Boulogne-Billancourt) is a popular French writer.

Biography

Anna Gavalda was born in a prestigious suburb of Paris. Anna's great-grandmother was a native of St. Petersburg (the line of ancestors named Fulda). After the divorce of her parents, she lived in a boarding school from the age of fourteen, then received her education at the Sorbonne. In 1992, she won the national competition for the best love letter. In 1998, she won the "Blood in the Inkpot" award for her novel "Aristote" and won two more literary competitions. In 1999, while working as a high school teacher, she released her first collection of short stories, I Wish Someone Was Waiting for Me Somewhere, which was warmly received by critics. Anna was awarded the RTL Grand Prix for this collection. “I would like someone to wait for me somewhere” was translated into almost 30 languages ​​and brought fame to its author as a new star of French literature. However, Anna's real success was brought by the novels “I loved her. I loved him” and “Just Together”, the last of which collected a huge number of literary awards. All three books were bestsellers, selling 1,885,000, 1,259,000 and 2,040,000 copies respectively between 2004 and 2008, bringing the author more than 32 million euros.

In March 2007, the movie Just Together by Claude Berry was released in France, starring Audrey Tautou, based on the novel of the same name by Anna Gavalda. French critics greeted the film with enthusiasm and did not skimp on praise. For four weeks of rental in France, the picture was watched by almost 2 million viewers, and at the sixth International Forum of Literature and Cinema, held in Monaco, the director received an award for the best film adaptation of the novel. In 2009, Isabelle Brightman made a film based on the novel I Loved Her. I loved him” starring Daniel Auteuil.

Among Russian readers, this writer is not yet as popular as in the West, where the name of Anna Gavalda has long been a brand.

Ironic, graceful and worldly sketches, in which there is sentimentality peeps through despair - a dessert for literary gourmets, prepared with true French charm.

Now Anna Gavalda lives in the city of Melun, writes three hours of novels and articles for Elle magazine every day and brings up two children.

"Gavalda is the main French literary sensation" - the newspaper "Sobesednik" "The plots of her short stories are life itself in all its multicolor" - "Komsomolskaya Pravda"

List of works

Novels

• I wish someone was waiting for me somewhere(September 1999)

Novels

• I loved her. I loved him(October 2003; filmed (fr.)Russian in 2009);
• Just together(March 2004; filmed in 2007);
• Consolation game of petanque(March 2008);
• A sip of freedom(August 2010);
• Billy (2014).
• Jan (2014)
• Matilda (2015)

Novels for youth

• 35 kilos of hope (2002)

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An excerpt characterizing Gavald, Anna

This meant that Tikhon was not giving him the vest he wanted. Another time he stopped and asked:
- And soon she will give birth? - and, shaking his head reproachfully, he said: - Not good! Go on, go on.
The third time, when Prince Andrei finished the description, the old man sang in a false and senile voice: “Malbroug s” en va t en guerre. Dieu sait guand revendra.
The son just smiled.
- I'm not saying that this was a plan that I approve, - said the son, - I just told you what is. Napoleon had already drawn up his plan no worse than this.
Well, you didn't tell me anything new. - And the old man thoughtfully said to himself quickly: - Dieu sait quand revendra. - Go to the dining room.

At the appointed hour, powdered and shaved, the prince went into the dining room, where his daughter-in-law, Princess Mary, m lle Bourienne and the prince’s architect, who, by a strange whim, were admitted to the table, were waiting for him, although this insignificant person by his position could not count on such an honor. . The prince, who firmly adhered to the difference in fortunes in life and rarely allowed even important provincial officials to the table, suddenly proved to the architect Mikhail Ivanovich, who was blowing his nose in a checkered handkerchief in a corner, that all people are equal, and more than once inspired his daughter that Mikhail Ivanovich did nothing worse than you and me. At the table, the prince most often turned to the dumb Mikhail Ivanovich.
In the dining room, enormously high, like all the rooms in the house, the household and the waiters who stood behind every chair were waiting for the prince to come out; the butler, with a napkin on his hand, looked around at the table setting, winking at the lackeys and constantly darting restlessly from the wall clock to the door from which the prince was supposed to appear. Prince Andrei looked at a huge, new to him, golden frame depicting the genealogical tree of the Bolkonsky princes, hanging opposite the same huge frame with a badly made (apparently by the hand of a house painter) image of a sovereign prince in a crown, who was supposed to come from Rurik and be the ancestor the Bolkonsky family. Prince Andrei looked at this family tree, shaking his head, and chuckled with the air with which one looks at a portrait that is similar to the ridiculous.
How do I recognize him here! he said to Princess Marya, who came up to him.
Princess Mary looked at her brother in surprise. She didn't understand what he was smiling at. Everything her father had done aroused in her awe that was beyond negotiation.
“Everyone has their own Achilles heel,” continued Prince Andrei. “With his great mind, donner dans ce ridicule!” [succumb to this pettiness!]
Princess Marya could not understand the boldness of her brother’s judgments and was preparing to object to him, when the expected steps were heard from the study: the prince entered quickly, cheerfully, as he always walked, as if deliberately with his hasty manners representing the opposite of the strict order of the house.
At the same instant, the big clock struck two, and others echoed in a thin voice in the drawing-room. The prince stopped; from under thick drooping eyebrows, lively, shining, stern eyes looked around at everyone and stopped at the young princess. The young princess experienced at that time the feeling that the courtiers feel at the royal entrance, the feeling of fear and reverence that this old man aroused in all those close to him. He stroked the princess on the head and then, with an awkward movement, patted her on the back of the head.
"I'm glad, I'm glad," he said, and, still looking intently into her eyes, he quickly walked away and sat down in his place. - Sit down, sit down! Mikhail Ivanovich, sit down.
He showed his daughter-in-law a place beside him. The waiter pulled out a chair for her.

The writer's books have conquered millions of readers around the world.

They are translated into dozens of languages, they receive prestigious awards, performances and paintings are created on their basis.

Tough, humorous, piercing and funny stories about the most ordinary life, behind the external inconspicuousness of which lie countless treasures of deep fears, hidden desires, dreams and resentments, and most importantly - love in all its manifestations.

35 kilos of hope (2002)

“35 kilos of hope” is a poetic parable that tells about the important:

about choosing your path in life
about the power of love and loyalty.
- about relatives.
- about how dreams and desires come true. You just need to be passionate about something.

Trying to solve his "childish" problems, the young hero is looking for a way out - and discovers it, so masterfully that he has a lot to learn from ...

I loved her. I loved him (2003)

We present to your attention another novel by a famous writer - “I loved her. I loved him."

This is a touching and sincere book about love, which will reveal to readers the sharpest and most hidden facets of this wonderful and incredible feeling.

Just Together (2004)

Anna Gavalda's books are popular with women.

They attract the audience with their openness, sincerity and optimism.

The book "Just Together" is a philosophical and light novel about love and loneliness, about fate, about joy. This amazing story, in simple words, tells about the main thing, became the basis for the film of the same name by Claude Berry starring Audrey Tautou (2007).

Consolation game of petanque (2008)

Charles Balanda is an architect whose business is going uphill.

In his personal life, too, everything is fine - he lives in the French capital with his beloved woman - the beautiful Laurence - and her daughter Matilda.

Charles loves his job and is gradually building the life he has always dreamed of. In general, everything is stable with him, and there are usually no surprises at this age. But one day he receives a letter that will shock him. It refers to the past, which the main character has not remembered for a long time ...

Breath of Freedom (2010)

"Draw of Freedom" is a story about a fun weekend.

About the time spent by a brother with his beloved sisters, about their unexpected escape from a family holiday, about a visit to the castle to visit his younger brother Vincent, about the adventures of the “magnificent four”, about delicious wines, about mutual understanding, about happiness, about work, about love .

Anna Gavalda is considered one of the most popular writers in the world. It is not for nothing that she is considered the “star of French literature” and the “new Francoise Sagan”.

Life Stories (compilation) (2012)

Life Stories are the 3 earliest books by Anna Gavalda, from which she began her path to success.

The novel “I loved her. I loved him” will make you think about the choice between grim duty and painful honesty.

The collection “I would like someone to wait for me somewhere…” will show all aspects of the writer's talent.

And the novel "A Sip of Freedom" reflects a very important theme: any meeting happens for a reason and any day can forever change your destiny.

Billy (2013)

In the center of the story are two teenagers who were not born in the most prosperous town. Here they could hardly expect a bright future. Billy lived in a poor and drinking family, and Frank was a constant object of ridicule because of his features.

But literally in an instant, by the will of the lot, they got the opportunity to learn together a scene from Alfred de Musset's play “No Joking With Love”.

And now an amazing story of one big love has begun, thanks to which 2 ugly ducklings, joining forces and tirelessly reminding each other that they are both beautiful, grow up and turn into beautiful swans.

Just people: Billy. Jan. Matilda (2013)

Three heroes - Matilda, Billy and Jan - are at a crossroads.

To get out of the vegetative state in which they are, they need to decide on something more.

3 adventures, the result of which is unknown. Any adventure starts small - and life can change in an instant ...

Jan (2014)

The protagonist, Jan, is a 26-year-old designer who desperately dreams of finding a job in his field. But he is not lucky and, in anticipation of the best, he has to work as a manager in a household appliance store.

Despite a completely prosperous life, he is sometimes visited by thoughts of drowning himself in the Seine ...

One evening, he agrees to help the neighbors raise a buffet to the apartment. As a token of gratitude, he is invited to dinner. The next day, Jan decides to send everything to hell and open a new page in his life ...

Matilda (2014)

The main character - Matilda - is still young and young.

Having dropped out of school, she gets a job, but at the same time she has to live with her twin sisters.

She believes that she is happy, but at the same time she is constantly applied to alcohol.

One evening she loses her purse in a cafe. Fortunately, she is found by a young guy who decides to return the thing to the owner after a week. And after a few months - precisely because of him - the main character decides to change everything in her life.

She prefers to remain in the shadows. And very infrequently communicates with journalists. After all, everything that she wanted or wants to say is in her books.

Want to know what Gavalda is thinking?

Read her books.

If you want to know who Gavalda is and what she is like, read her books. After all, each book of the writer is a piece of himself, his worldview, thoughts, actions. In a word, the books about their author have everything...

She, of course, is not the “new Sagan”, as literary critics sometimes call her. She is Anna Gavalda. A very original writer, whose books are interesting to read, because they contain our daily life in all its multicoloredness with joys, hopes and disappointments.

Anna Gavalda, like many prominent people in the West, has Russian roots. Her maternal great-grandmother is a native of St. Petersburg who emigrated to France. Therefore, Anna was born in Paris, in a wealthy family, and did not know grief until the age of 14. And then her parents divorced, and Anna was sent - for good or for bad, a moot point - to be raised in a private boarding school. The girl turned out to be with character, she endured separation from her parents stoically and after graduating from the boarding school she entered the world's largest university center - the Sorbonne. There, in 1992, in one of the literary competitions for the best love message, as a 22-year-old student, moonlighting as a waitress and cashier, she completely unconditionally won, leaving all other contestants far behind.

No, she did not immediately believe in her literary vocation. At first, she began working as a high school French teacher, writing stories and novels on the table. They were about life, about love, about human relationships in general. In 1988, she decided to publish the novel Aristote and won the Blood in the Inkwell literary prize. And then she took 12 of her short stories to the publishing house, not counting on world fame at all.

This collection of short stories entitled “I wish someone was waiting for me somewhere...” was published in 1999 and made a splash in France. And by 2003 it had already been translated into almost 30 languages ​​of the world. Success inspired, and Anna publishes her first novel in 2002, “I loved her. I loved him,” a sad story about love, behind the external simplicity of which lies deep reflections on the facets of this mysterious, happy and painful feeling.

The next novel "Just Together" both cheerfully and sadly told about the life of four people who were different from each other, who ended up in the same apartment. It became an undoubted bestseller, was translated into 36 languages ​​​​of the world and filmed. As a result, the first three books of Anna Gavalda were sold with a total circulation of more than 5 million. copies and brought the author 32 million euros with kopecks.

She now lives in a small town of Meden, near Paris, with only about 38 thousand inhabitants, brings up two children and continues to write novels. Already appeared in the Russian translation of "A Sip of Freedom" and "Consolation game of petanque."

Our reader relates to the works of Anna Gavalda in different ways. Someone considers them superficial and similar to the novels of our writer Ulitskaya. Someone classifies them as books "for an amateur." And someone considers the same collection of short stories to be pearls of prose, amazing and touching. Of course, in order to form your own opinion about the short stories and novels of Anna Gavalda, you need to read them. And it's worth reading...

On December 9, 1970, Anna Gavalda was born in the French city of Boulogne-Belancourt. It is curious that even her great-grandmother, a native of St. Petersburg, had a surname like "Fulda", but changed under the influence of the pronunciation of French officials. From childhood, Anna was a terrible inventor, which did not prevent her from doing well at school. Most of all, she loved to write essays, and the teacher read almost all of her work to the class as an example. Anna was fourteen years old when her parents divorced, and the girl had to live and study in a boarding school.

Anna Gavalda continued her education at the Sorbonne and in her student years worked a lot - as a waitress, cashier and journalist. She had to work so that every day she had breakfast and, preferably, dinner, and the girl did not at all think then that the experience and impressions she had gained would be useful to her later for writing books that became famous. She also took part in competitions. In 1992, Anna won first place in the French competition "Best Love Letter". This competition was held by a well-known national radio station, and Anna Gavalda, with her short, some ten lines, letter, could not even imagine that she would become the first among thousands of applicants. The letter was written on behalf of a young man, which surprised the jury very much - the girl understood and highlighted the psychology of the opposite sex so deeply.

Anna could not pass her final exams at the Sorbonne, and therefore, instead of working as a journalist, she took up another job - teaching French to first-graders in one of the colleges. In the mid-nineties, Anna Gavalda got married, but she does not like to remember this - a few years later her husband left her, leaving two children as a memory of herself - son Louis (born in 1996) and daughter Felicite (born in 1999). On the other hand, perhaps it was the worries about the destroyed family that prompted Anna to serious literary work. In her free time, she made up various stories, and then began to write them down. That is how her first book, consisting of short stories, turned out. True, while not counting herself among the writers, Anna Gavalda became a very prominent French author, especially since in 1998 she won three literary competitions at once and received the very prestigious French literary award "Blood in the Inkwell" - for her short story "Aristote" .

Anna Gavalda's collection of short stories “I wish someone was waiting for me somewhere” was published in 1999, and the book was exceptionally warmly received by critics, and the very next year, 2000, it received the RTL Grand Prix. As for the general public, in the very first weeks of sales, France was captivated by the talent of the young writer. This success is also surprising because the genre of the short story has ceased to be fashionable, and Anna Gavalda has literally revived interest in modern short stories. Over the next four years, the book was translated into thirty languages, which quite adequately reflects the attitude towards the brightly flashed new star of French literature.

Anna Gavalda's first novel was published in 2002. The book titled "I Loved Him" ​​was swept off the shelves, but this was only the beginning of real success. Two years later, Anna Gavalda published Just Together, and its popularity in France was overshadowed by the famous The Da Vinci Code, and according to readers, the novel was unparalleled among the literary works of recent years. This book by Gavalda received many literary awards and raised interest in the writer's previous work. All three of her books were reprinted in unprecedented editions, well over a million copies, and the last sold in the amount of two million copies. The financial result was also pleasant - Anna Gavalda earned thirty-two million euros with her books.

Naturally, the work of the writer became interested in cinema. In the spring of 2007, director Claude Berry released the film Just Together on the big screen in France. This film starred such "whales" of cinema as Guillaume Cannet and Audrey Tautou. Film critics responded with great enthusiasm to the film, and the opinion of the audience can be assessed by the fact that in just one month of hire, "Just Together" was watched by more than two million people. The Sixth International Forum of Literature and Cinema, held in Monaco, also appreciated the director's work in this film - Claude Berry was awarded the prize for the best and most accurate adaptation of the novel into cinema.

Two years later, in 2009, based on the novel by Anna Gavalda “I loved her. I loved him,” directed by Isabelle Brightman created a film version starring Daniel Auteuil. The work of Anna Gavalda generally became in demand in the cinema of France. In 2010, the picture “35 kilos of hope” appeared on television screens based on the book of the writer, written in 2002 for teenagers. Anna Gavalda managed in this book not only to penetrate the complex children's world, but also to find points that actually determine the future fate of children.

Anna's following novels - "The consolation game of petanque" and "A sip of freedom" became no less famous in the world. The writer is also known in Russia - her novels have been translated into Russian. Several times Anna Gavalda visited our country and even says in an interview that in her old age she would like to work in the Hermitage. She claims that she does not like her popularity, because fame is very harmful to creativity - after all, it is very difficult to watch people being famous. Anna does not even put her photographs in books and rarely appears on television, and therefore she is not often recognized on the streets.

Anna Gavalda currently lives in Melun, is engaged in raising children and writes stories and articles for Elle magazine. The children are not yet going to follow in the footsteps of their mother - Louis is passionate about botany, and Felicite dreams of a career as Coco Chanel.

Because of the ironic, elegant and very realistic books, this Frenchwoman is called the “new Françoise Sagan”, and her books are a real pleasure for true connoisseurs of French charm and good literature.