She is a shepherdess and lived in the RSA. It displays the physical and phrasing of a first class, except that he was dunce and dyslexic. She is the daughter of a pastor. We meet her in the kitchen of Editions de l'Olivier. The hands of a worker with hard nails and a phalanx less, a voice of smoky child, a silhouette of adolescent. His face, wild and solar like a mask of the wind and the ocean, tells the adventure in the long run.
She is Catherine Poulain, 55, author of a first autobiographical novel, Le grand marin (edited by Olivier), epic of a woman fishing in Alaska. By early May 2016, the book had already sold 38,000 copies. Awarded the Joseph-Kessel Prize 2016, the Mac Orlan Prize, six prizes to "Amazing Travelers".
He is Olivier Bourdeaut, the author of En attendant Bojangles (edited by Finitude), an editorial phenomenon of the year with 130,000 copies sold. A child watches his parents love one another with a mad love, until the day when the madness of the mother sweeps away into madness. Prize of the student novel France Culture- Télérama , Prix RTL / Lire, reader's price L'Express / BFMTV.
In an editorial universe that pulsates to the rhythm of the releases of stars who have value of brands, these outsiders without pedigree are an exception. Olivier Cohen, the publisher of Catherine Poulain, knows something about it: "The" serious "edition is experiencing a certain pessimism. Among the avalanche of good big books tearful or people, there is no more place for the anonymous. And suddenly two strangers emerge from nothing, everything becomes possible again. "
Notebooks and a caravan
"Such a success is rare for a first novel," he confirms. The Grand Sailor is in line with Jack London's great adventure and travel books. For Emmanuelle Boizet, founder of Finitude editions, who got her hand on Waiting for Bojangles , Olivier Bourdeaut's text is a beautiful love story that makes you dream without being cowardly: "The emotion is there, with enough restraint . "
Francois Busnel © Bertrand Rindoff Petroff / Getty Images
The Grande Librairie , on France 5, is the unavoidable step for a successful media coverage. François Busnel received the two authors. Verdict: " Bojangles is a little Boris Vian relooked by Alexander Garden ... very touching, a good book. "As for the Large Marine, is" a great book in the vein of Conrad and Melville. " If they are unknown, the authors who sneak into the lead pack do not leave the void. "Many write for twenty or thirty years in their corner, in silence. To believe that the writers leave the seraglio is a very Parisian idea, replies Marion Mazauric, founder of Au Diable Vauvert, who published a bestseller in 2014, The Reader of 06:27 , by Jean-Paul Didierlaurent, customer at Orange, in the Vosges. The birth of a writer takes time, the time of self-gestation and a book. "Didierlaurent, who combined 231,000 copies in May 2016, was familiar writing: regular competitions news, he was twice winner of the new Hemingway Award. He wrote in the shadows for twenty years.
Like Olivier Bourdeaut, who was denied a first manuscript, before winning the bet. Or Catherine Poulain: "I sent a large manuscript to Gallimard, the Seuil and the women's publishing house," she says. Only Seuil replied: "Well written, but you wanted to say everything. Literature is a choice. "Satisfied by this benevolent refusal, Catherine Poulain went back to work, keep his" girls, "the sheep. But continues to "hold" his notebooks.
From the "real life" , neither journalists nor writers, nor sons or daughters of, success gives a singular relief to a journey that serves as storytelling. The birth of their book is a reality almost as interesting as fiction. A faucet opener in the hospital of Saint-Nazaire, this is one of the last jobs won by Bourdeaut. Systematically fired from the odd jobs he has occupied over the last fifteen years, he has been at the RSA for a while when his brother says to him: "Stop us with your novel. "
He opens his house to the Pouliguen, with instructions to get there at last. In a few months, it's folded. It is not his family that pushes Catherine Poulain, but a friend writer. The journalist Anne Vallaeys then wanders in the valley of the Ubaye (Alpes-de-Haute-Provence) in search of a shepherdess, for his book Le loup est revenu (eds Fayard).
© Frank Bienewald / Getty Images
"The shepherdess was me," remembers Catherine Poulain. "Much has been said about literature. She has blacked dozens of notebooks, all her notes were lying in her caravan , Anne Vallaeys recounts. She wrote a lot, her letters were beautiful, she said her exhaustion of the mountain. I tanned her for her to launch into a book, and one day I received eighty sheets. I was amazed, upset. I had the whole read to Olivier Cohen. "In the autumn, the shepherdess returns in the Southwest, to re-enter the family home and work in the vineyard. "I did not find a job. I had to earn a little more than 3 000 € for the sheep guard during the summer, it goes fast, I did not have the morale. In December, Anne calls to tell me that Olivier Cohen wants to see me. I went up with my dog to Paris. We talked a lot, and he took me in his arms and said, "Thank you." I thought: I'm someone. I've always been a worker. "
The contract is signed, she leaves in the Médoc to write what will be Le grand marin . For the promotion of the book, she was replaced two months by a shepherd. Although she trampled TV sets and sweatshops on the Left Bank for interviews, the adventurer found her ewes in June, her caravan and Lidl beers. And that suits him. Her elderly aunt, a former professor of literature who published an account of an author, said to her: "Catherine, do you realize what is happening to you?" A poor woman like you. "The shepherdess literate can not suppress a smile.
Positive Psychology
"To succeed in making a hole is a dream cherished by all first-time novelists, but " in the book market which has more than 700,000 references per year, it's a performance, " says Sébastien Rouault, which figures the consumption of cultural products in France. A miracle itself, when we know that only 500 to 600 copies of a first novel are usually set up in bookshops. When Finitude editions pulled Bojangles to 10,000 copies, they knew they were holding a bestseller. "Each year, two or three surprise titles dominate sales. "In 2015, it was a test done by a German PhD student of 24 years, Giulia Enders, after the presentation of his case during a speaking contest. The discrete charm of the intestine (eds Actes Sud) had reached 487 000 copies, a success that continues in 2016.
On the fiction side, most of these unpredictable successes are on the wave of "feel good books", books that do good. The list of novels modeled on this mold is long, from The Happy People Read and Drink Coffee Agnès Martin-Lugand (edited by Michel Lafon, 2013) to The Elegance of the Hedgehog by Muriel Barbery (Gallimard, 2006) by way of the extraordinary journey of the fakir who had been stuck in an Ikea wardrobe by Romain Puértolas (edited by Le Dilettante, 2013).
Recipe ? For Sébastien Rouault, we find in each of these titles a common alchemy: "everyday subjects, a philosophy of life, often dominated by positive psychology, a long title, a sparkling cover . " And heroes faced a turning point in their lives. "We're reinventing the powder," Anna Pavlowitch smiled, at Flammarion's. But in fact, we rediscover the novel of initiation. When fiction crosses personal development: a love story, a journey of life with twists and turns. "
Whatever the etiquette, these books reach an audience eager for authenticity. "They provoke in their publishers and readers a little spark: the spark of pleasure but not only, the disturbing emotion too," concludes Florent Massot, independent publisher, subscribing to best-sellers: Baise-moi by Virginie Despentes, Thank you for this moment of Valérie Trierweiler and, recently, Rabbits and wonders of Gaël Tchalakoff. For this maverick, the books of outsiders are the very proof that marketing does not always win. And surprise: Joseph Andras, a 31-year-old unknown who was not on the list of nominees, has just won the Goncourt of the first novel. The author of De nos frères blessés (eds Actes Sud) lives in Normandy, his name is probably a pseudonym, and he refuses to lend himself to the promotional exercise.
