Hélène Gaudy

Archipels

August 19, 2024
Novel
288 pages
140 × 205 mm
21 €
9782823621150
978-2-8236-2115-0

“Littérature française” collection

																Hélène Gaudy, Archipels
																Hélène Gaudy, Archipels

Through the exploration of her father’s workshop, Hélène Gaudy explores his lives, as well as everyone’s intimate relationship with memories.

It took her mind wandering to Île Jean-Charles to bring her face to face with her father. Who is this man with his quiet presence, never questioned? The first place to explore is his studio. The artist has gleaned and piled up all manner of objects in the midst of his canvases, so many imprints of the landscapes he has loved and inhabited. Then there are the notebooks he entrusts to her, revealing the man who knew nothing of his past, the idealistic and sentimental young adult, the teacher in Algeria, the husband with an unshakeable fantasy, and the poet. Little by little, their writing becomes intertwined.

Through the exploration of her father’s workshop, Hélène Gaudy delves into the archives of memory. She unravels the thread of a destiny: joys, doubts, wars, and history. While building her father a place safe from oblivion, she offers to the readers a sensitive, beautifully crafted text.

Finalist for the Goncourt Prize 2024 and shortlisted for The Femina Prize 2024
The author

Hélène Gaudy was born in 1979. After training in the plastic arts, she worked on a number of projects involving images and landscapes. She has published several novels, including Vues sur la mer (Les Impressions nouvelles, 2006), Plein hiver (Actes Sud, 2014) and Une île, une forteresse (Inculte, 2016). She is a member of the Inculte collective and the editorial board of La Moitié du fourbi magazine. Her latest novel, Un monde sans rivage (Actes Sud), based on the lacunar photographs of lost polar explorers, was shortlisted for the Prix Goncourt and won SCAM’s Prix François Billetdoux in 2019. She teaches in the Master de Création littéraire program at Paris 8.

August 19, 2024
Novel
288 pages
140 × 205 mm
21 €
9782823621150
978-2-8236-2115-0

“Littérature française” collection