Nathacha Appanah
Invited to the 2018 Books & Music Festival
Nathacha Appanah was born in Mauritius. After her studies, she worked for a few years as a journalist for a Mauritian weekly newspaper (Weekend Scope) and moved to France in 1998. While working as a journalist, she published her first novel, Les Rochers de Poudre d'Or (Editions Gallimard, 2013) in 2003. This book tells the story of the Indian workers who came to replace slaves in the sugarcane fields of Mauritius. His second novel Blue Bay Palace (Gallimard, 2004) shows the schizophrenia of Mauritius between the postcard and a society very marked by classes and prejudices.
In La noce d'Anna, published in 2005 by Gallimard, the narrator, during the wedding day of her daughter, Anna, wonders about the transmission between mother and daughter.
The Last Brother, published in 2007 by Editions de l'Olivier, tells the story of Raj and David, two children who have nothing in common except broken innocence and a desire for brotherhood in a world fractured by the Second World War.
En attendant demain was published by Gallimard in 2015 and explores, in this novel that takes place over twenty years, the relationship between creation and everyday life. Through the story of a couple in need of inspiration, this book asks how far can one go for art?
In 2016, she published, again with Gallimard, Tropique de la violence, a polyphonic novel that plunges into the hell of a youth left to its own devices on the French island of Mayotte in the Indian Ocean. At the same time, the Petit Eloge des fantômes, a short collection of short stories, was published by Folio.
Nathacha Appanah has also translated two novels from English into French: Indigne by Alexander Maksik (éditions Payot-Rivages, 2013) and Le Voyage de Ruth by Donald McCaig (Michel Lafon, 2014).
She writes a weekly column in La Croix, and her novels have been translated in several countries.
Tropique de la violence, 2016, Gallimard, Prix Anna de Noailles 2017, Prix France Télévisions 2017, Prix Jean-Amila Meckert 2017, Prix Escale du livre 2017, Prix littéraire de la ville de Caen 2017, Prix Charles Bisset 2017, Prix Femina des lycéens 2016, Prix BPE-Banque Postale 2016.
Small Praise of Ghosts, Folio 2 euros.
En attendant demain, 2015, Gallimard, Mille et une feuilles 2015 prize
Le Dernier Frère, 2007, l'Olivier, prix Fnac 2007, prix des lecteurs de L'Express 2008, prix de la fondation France-Israel
La Noce d'Anna, 2005, Gallimard, Prix Passion 2006, Prix grand public Salon du livre de Paris 2006
Blue Bay Palace, Grand prix littéraire Océans indiens et pacifiques 2005.
Les Rochers de Poudre d'Or, 2003, RFO prize 2003, Rosine Perrier prize 2004, Hermillon prize 2004, Lire dans le Noir prize 2004.
