Description
'The best early training for a writer is an unhappy childhood,' Hemingway famously said. Julia Kerninon, one of France's most acclaimed young novelists, tells an altogether different story in a poetic account of her pursuit. Her vibrant ode to reading, and to writing as a space for discovery (as well as a 'respectable occupation') entwines the French and Anglo-Saxon literary traditions as she journeys fluidly through her formative years. From her native Brittany to the city of Shakespeare and Company, to a seaside cafe on the Atlantic coast, to Budapest and back, the author conjures a feminine answer to A Moveable Feast.
A pocket-sized ode to writing by one of France's most notable new voices. Preface by award-winning author and translator Lauren Elkin (author of Flaneuse: Women Walk the City, Chatto & Windus, BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week) The answer to Hemmingway's A Moveable Feast, from an up-and-coming French female voice aged 30, whose latest novel is coming out in English published by Europa Editions. Infused with a love of literature, the book is a celebration of exchange between Francophone and Anglophone cultures past and present: a book for writers and all book lovers. A portrait of the working-class artist by an award-winning European and Anglophile writer. There will be an online video interview of the author, promoted in collaboration with the European Literature Network and the French Institute sales in France are 8,000-10,000 (tbc) Best books of summer 2020, Tatler
About the Author
Julia Kerninon was born in 1987 and holds a Ph.D in American Literature. She has been compared to French New Wave filmmaker Eric Rohmer for her sense of style and feeling for dialogue, and to Alain Resnais for the artful structure of her narratives. But, most of all, her work stands out for its contagious joy, drive, exuberance. Her first novel, Buvard, has won the Prix Francoise Sagan, among many other awards. Kerninon's second novel, Le dernier amour d'Attila Kiss, won the Prix de la Closerie des Lilas in 2016, and her latest novel, My Devotion, winner of the 2018 Feneon Literary Prize, is published by Europa Editions on 20 August 2020. She lives in Nantes.
Reviews
'Borne along by Kerninon's long, joyful sentences (nimbly translated by Ruth Diver), it's a winning account of her journey from reader to writer.' - Francesca Carington, Tatler (Best Books of Summer 2020); 'A loose but very charming longform essay about writing and being a writer (...) In the anecdotal and at times very funny prose of A Respectable Occupation we follow Kerninon's childhood fascination with bookshops, her obsessive consumption and production of words' - Robert Greer, The Idler; 'A female manifesto for a writer's life (...) a lyrical reminder of the hard (and indeed often unrelated) work it takes to be a wordsmith, which is justified daily in the joy of putting pen to paper and writing book after book.' - Mia Colleran, The Irish Times; 'Marvellously contagious.' - Le Point; 'Julia Kerninon lays down sentences as definitive as dictums, impresses with her maturity of style and command of narrative. The reader plunges in, with the same voraciousness she puts into her writing.' - ELLE (France)
Book Information
ISBN 9781999331818
Author Julia Kerninon
Format Paperback
Page Count 80
Imprint Les Fugitives
Publisher Les Fugitives
A pocket-sized ode to writing by one of France's most notable new voices. Preface by award-winning author and translator Lauren Elkin (author of Flaneuse: Women Walk the City, Chatto & Windus, BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week) The answer to Hemmingway's A Moveable Feast, from an up-and-coming French female voice aged 30, whose latest novel is coming out in English published by Europa Editions. Infused with a love of literature, the book is a celebration of exchange between Francophone and Anglophone cultures past and present: a book for writers and all book lovers. A portrait of the working-class artist by an award-winning European and Anglophile writer. There will be an online video interview of the author, promoted in collaboration with the European Literature Network and the French Institute sales in France are 8,000-10,000 (tbc) Best books of summer 2020, Tatler
About the Author
Julia Kerninon was born in 1987 and holds a Ph.D in American Literature. She has been compared to French New Wave filmmaker Eric Rohmer for her sense of style and feeling for dialogue, and to Alain Resnais for the artful structure of her narratives. But, most of all, her work stands out for its contagious joy, drive, exuberance. Her first novel, Buvard, has won the Prix Francoise Sagan, among many other awards. Kerninon's second novel, Le dernier amour d'Attila Kiss, won the Prix de la Closerie des Lilas in 2016, and her latest novel, My Devotion, winner of the 2018 Feneon Literary Prize, is published by Europa Editions on 20 August 2020. She lives in Nantes.
Reviews
'Borne along by Kerninon's long, joyful sentences (nimbly translated by Ruth Diver), it's a winning account of her journey from reader to writer.' - Francesca Carington, Tatler (Best Books of Summer 2020); 'A loose but very charming longform essay about writing and being a writer (...) In the anecdotal and at times very funny prose of A Respectable Occupation we follow Kerninon's childhood fascination with bookshops, her obsessive consumption and production of words' - Robert Greer, The Idler; 'A female manifesto for a writer's life (...) a lyrical reminder of the hard (and indeed often unrelated) work it takes to be a wordsmith, which is justified daily in the joy of putting pen to paper and writing book after book.' - Mia Colleran, The Irish Times; 'Marvellously contagious.' - Le Point; 'Julia Kerninon lays down sentences as definitive as dictums, impresses with her maturity of style and command of narrative. The reader plunges in, with the same voraciousness she puts into her writing.' - ELLE (France)
Book Information
ISBN 9781999331818
Author Julia Kerninon
Format Paperback
Page Count 80
Imprint Les Fugitives
Publisher Les Fugitives
