It is the overwhelming story of a transformation without voyeurism and a couple in full storm.

  • How can I say?

Hide the truth to his loved ones, or - pushed by the courage to be self - say it? But then when and how? The novel - very successful, sober and precise - of this mutation is part of the very current questions about gender. He avoids the farce as well as the tearful tragedy or the self-righteous essay on the theme of sexual identity. The author, violinist and writer Léonor de Récondo - noticed in 2015 thanks to Amours (and winner of the Prix des Libraires and Grand Prix RTL-Lire) - is constantly exploring the limits of the changing relationships that each of us maintains with his body.

  • Laurent / Lauren

"The idea of ​​the book came to me when I saw in the American press a picture of Caitlyn Jenner (ex-William Bruce, married to Kris ex-Kardashian, ed.). Before, he was an Olympic decathlon champion; he changed his sex later. And in this picture, what did I see? A beautiful woman, who looked good in her skin. Hence this question: if one has the impression of being born in the wrong body, how to accept to spend all his life there? But here, I wanted to situate the story of Laurent / Lauren in an ordinary environment, and to consider the thing not only from the point of view of the couple but also that of the fatherhood: how will he manage this with his children? "

  • Neither homosexual nor bisexual

Men who feel like a woman and want to become a woman, passing through the taking of hormones and a painful operation, often love men. From homosexuals, after the medical phase, they become heterosexual. "But Laurent was never gay or bi, loving his wife, Solange, and making love with her, desiring to have her always as a companion. Optimistic, for to her,
who also wants to love her against all odds, is wondering whether Laurent, when Lauren becomes Lauren, will become a lesbian by continuing to love her.

  • The cardinal point

Essential question that the title points out, and who works so much Solange: is the person defined by his gender, his sexuality, by his sexual identity? In other words: can a spouse and a family member secretly dress up in a parking lot to dance with transsexuals, then make-up and get dressed as a man to take up his place in the home? And, in the end, change sex altogether but without basically nothing changes?

  • A free sexual identity

With a smile, Leonor de Récondo assumes his masculine part, but never thought of changing sex: Leonor will never be Leon. "But as an artist, regarding my sexual identity, I feel very free in my imagination. As a single child also, who did not have a brother, so not really limits restricting that identity. "

  • The obsession of the body

From novel to novel, Leonor de Récondo keeps his eyes on the body and his desires. Very interested in "that", is not it? "Yes," she laughed, "it surprises me myself. But not that much: "I often turn around the body and its identity, because what escapes through it intrigues me enormously. "

Cardinal point of Leonor de Recondo, ed. Sabine Wespieser, 20 €, released 24 August.