The novelist released his new work, entitled
The Symphony of Monsters
, on November 9. And if
Marc Levy
decided to devote his 25th book to the terrible kidnappings of Ukrainian children by the Russians, he also returned to his first publication,
And if it were true
, in 2000 published by Robert Laffont opposite Yann Barthès.
“With success came an immediate bashing which pushed you to leave France
,” launched the presenter before being directly taken up by the author.
On the contrary, the latter affirmed that
“bashing”
– understanding the criticism in French – served him.
“I never had a big enough ego for it to... I thought it was doing me quite a favor actually and then I left straight away. »
However, this wave of hatred was never the cause of his departure from France.
“When I sent my manuscript to Laffont, I received a phone call eight days later to tell me that they were going to publish it. And then six to seven months passed because it was the New Year 2000 holidays.”
“I didn’t want this notoriety”
These months of waiting caused the budding author to completely forget what he had committed to with the publishing house.
“I ran an architecture firm, I was a single dad, the days were very full. »
But a few days before the book's release, his publisher asked him to participate in Bernard Pivot's show.
“So I went to do
“culture broth”
which was the biggest fear of my life, you can’t even imagine. And on Monday morning when I arrived at the office, I got in the elevator with two colleagues who said to me
“oh well we’re going to buy your book, we saw you at Pivot”.”
Marc Levy then immediately decreed that he had to leave for fear of these reactions.
“I am a very modest person and I told myself that it was impossible that I would meet people at a dinner who had read my book. In addition, I absolutely wanted to remain the father of my son, I did not want this notoriety. That's the only reason we left. »