Video & interview by Ey@el

Original en français

I discovered the magic pen of Christelle Dabos in 2013 (same year I created this blog) upon the French release of A Winter's Promise, great winner of the first edition of the First Youth Novel Contest organised by Gallimard Jeunesse and other sponsors in the spring of 2012 and which later became part of the international bestselling Mirror Visitor Quartet, available in some twenty languages. For me, Christelle is somehow a French J.K. Rowling, only better — with all due respect to the latter whose books I still love all the same. Incidentally, Harry Potter may indirectly be the reason she began to write as she would enjoy creating fan-fictions of her own featuring Professor Snape.

I first met Christelle in 2020, on a virtual online book fair during lockdown. Since then, we met in real life in June 2023, prior to a book signing session at an indie book store called Ici Grands-Boulevards in Paris. Finally, on 29th February, I had the great honour and privilege to hold a videoconference call meeting with her to talk about her latest book called Here and Only Here (the title of which is directly derived from the above-mentioned Parisian book store), an unclassifiable choral novel inspired by Latin American magic realism and transposed to the ruthless world of grammar school.

I therefore invite you to watch the resulting video I spent so many nights and days editing — mostly due to countless software issues undermining my workflow. I sincerely hope  it will make you want to read the book. Below is the entire translated original transcript (split in three separate parts given its length) which might be more comfortable to read than subtitles. In addition, you'll even find a “bonus chapter” (People's Reactions) which I had to cut from the video in order to remain within a 30-minute time range.

Ey@el

Under the paint, plaster, and cement, inside the walls, deep in the invisible, I detect something I can’t yet name, something seriously fierce that inhabits the whole school and is seeping into my bones. That will soon be part of me.

~  Iris

U-Turn

EYAEL: Here and Only Here is starkly different from the Mirror Visitor. Both world and character-wise, but also regarding the storytelling and the language. Was it part of a deliberate effort or just a mere product of whimsical inspiration?

CHRISTELLE DABOS: It just came naturally.

Actually, Here and Only Here wasn't written directly in the aftermath of the Mirror Visitor. What happened is that after I completed the fourth volume of the quartet, the writing process had been so intense I had promised myself to take a year off writing because I was really at the end of my rope. But I didn't last 24 hours!

The next day after the last book hit the shelves, I was writing again. Except what I was writing wasn't Here and Only Here. It was another novel. And in that book, I was already experimenting. So right then, I thought “now I really want to try something else”. Like writing in the first person, in the present tense, in a more oral language, using with various narrators … Just at the formal level, I thought “come on, let's break the mould of the Mirror Visitor”. Pow! Here we go.

And actually, I put this book on pause for a while because I was in the midst of moving home right during lockdown. And that relocation which brought about Here and Only Here really wasn't on the agenda. Really not!

In fact, it's dead simple: I moved in front of a school. And so, at the beginning, it brought back memories. First, memories of primary school which, for me, were rather happy and very light-hearted. And then, since memory has its own linear path, all of a sudden, I shifted back to my grammar school years and I thought “oh, there's something there”.

And during this moving period, I remember I was surrounded by boxes and couldn't write in a structured way anymore. I said “okay, I got something that really, really wants to be told so I'll let it come out as is”.

And I wasn't thinking of publishing it. I wasn't at all. I didn't have a target audience. I didn't think “that's a new project that I'm going to submit”. I never considered it, it just happened.

And I thought “it's okay, I'm going to write a short story about some character”. Then a second character emerged; then a third one; then a fourth… And in fact, it created a sort of alternation. I had no plan. I didn't take any note and it wrote itself all the way through.

Honestly, that's the first time it ever happened on a book project.

To Publish or Not To Publish?

EYAEL: So you never considered publishing it?

CHRISTELLE DABOS: I did think of it, but only once I'd completed it.

Actually, even once completed, I thought “well, there's that thing that came out of me. What am I going to do with it?“

I didn't rush immediately. I left the story to rest for a while. Actually, at the time, I had just recently hired a literary agency and I thought “well, let's start with them for this project”. So I submitted my manuscript and that's how it got into the publishing process.

But to be really honest, I think I was in no hurry to get back into it. Because well, it may not look like much, with the Mirror Visitor — there were many great things, that I can't deny — but there was also a very strong and intense psychological pressure.

So when the lockdown occurred, I was really in a golden interlude. I thought “well, anyway, since everything is on hold, there is no other choice than to take a rest”. And for me, it was writing.

Actually, I found my interlude very comfortable. I knew it couldn't last forever, but it was such a weightless experience. I knew that getting the book into the workings of publication would bring back … not necessarily the publishing process itself, but the fact that there were readers and expectations. Especially in the wake of the Mirror Visitor.

Already, with the Mirror Visitor, I was unable to write unless I ignored stuff. So I had to manage to isolate myself in a bubble in order to write
otherwise I couldn't. And that was difficult to achieve. There were times when I couldn't do it as I had too many things to deal with.

So this time, I didn't have to force myself at all. I was already in that bubble. Besides, the story that came up felt kind of obvious and liberating, kind of saying "There's something in here".

People's Reactions

EYAEL: How was the book received by the readers of the Mirror Visitor and also by your publisher after you submitted your project onto them? Weren't you a bit afraid of what their reaction might be?

CHRISTELLE DABOS: First, as regards to the publisher's reception, I did wonder indeed. I asked myself, "I'm taking such a drastic U-turn in regard to the Mirror Visitor. Are they going to stand by me?”

And they did. They took it all on trust, really. They didn't even discuss it and say “Well, yes, indeed…” There was nothing to negotiate as regard to the manuscript. As soon as they read it, Gallimard Jeunesse accepted it as is.

The editorial manager called me and said: “Honestly Christelle, if I didn't know it was you, I would never have guessed. I'm flabbergasted", he said.

So it was a nice surprise. And they were eager to get started. Literally-speaking, we do get on well with Gallimard Jeunesse. We're quite on the same wavelength and so everything went well regarding editorial decisions.

The important question was now how the audience would respond. How would the book be received ?

It's quite peculiar as I think the most unanimously used term was 'UFO'.

I think people had much trouble classifying it. For some, it was a good thing, but for others it was too disturbing. It's quite difficult to evaluate this way, but I'd already wondered how many people who had read the Mirror Visitor would stand by me with this new project.

Actually, only a fraction did. Those who knew me from the Mirror Visitor didn't necessarily rushed in, saying: “oh, that's the new book by Christelle Dabos”. I think they realised it wasn't the Mirror Visitor. Ultimately, only a relatively small fraction of my readership did take a look into Here. And the feedback among these was quite contrasted.

There were those who thought, “oh dear, we're puzzled, we're not sure about what we've read, it's quite disturbing and so we don't know if we liked it or not” — and for these individuals indeed that was quite an issue. Not to mention that it could bring back memories.

There were those for whom school had been uncomfortable. Which I can perfectly understand. And others who felt the same way: "Yes, we cannot pigeon-hole it; yes, we are baffled, but we like it. We enjoyed the surprise.” That was in that sense.

In this regard, I found that perfectly normal. But what really took me aback — and I certainly wasn't ready for it — was that I had taken for granted that the professionals in the book industry would stand by me as they had with the Mirror Visitor.

One of the reasons why it had worked so well was because book stores, libraries, teachers and the whole system altogether had all embraced and stuck their necks out for it.

EYAEL: What about influencers? I didn't find much on Here and Only Here.

CHRISTELLE DABOS: Influencers too, of course. There was a meeting with 50 female influencers — I insisting on that since there was only one guy against 49 that day. The meeting was organised for the launch of the book by Gallimard. But I don't think all fifty wrote a review. And for those who did, I had no idea whether it was widely shared.

Someone who had seriously boosted the Mirror Visitor was Émilie Bulledop. She is an influencer with a huge community behind her and she heavily promoted the books. It helps when you get people like that doing the job. I can see the difference now and then.

So now I could feel that, apart from Gallimard Jeunesse and I, the project had far less support from other people. Also, when I visited book stores, libraries and talked to professionals, I realised that some had truly jumped onto the bandwagon, saying, "we really enjoyed the unexpected turn” — while other said, "that book doesn't really make you keen to be a student. I certainly doesn't make you keen to be a teacher. And it addresses very touchy issues. Personally, I would not advise it to hyper sensitive people”.

EYAEL: In her books, psychologist Christel Petitcollin differentiates overefficients from normo-thinkers in the sense that their neurological wiring are totally different and explains, in particular, how a majority of people will avoid existential issues at all costs unlike the minority with the over-active brain working in a treelike rather than linear way. Which might explain such clear-cut responses on both sides.

CHRISTELLE DABOS: The fact is we may not be all equal as regard to fear as we're not all at the same stage of our journey. For instance, before the Mirror Visitor, I had attempted to write on that issue and it had been a total failure. Because I knew … I think I could feel already …

A couple of years back, I said, "I really want to write a story set in a grammar school to address certain issues”. Even though it was considerably softer than what I did with Here, I quickly felt extremely uncomfortable. I thought, "no, I really can't. I'm not ready”. It's only after the completion of the Mirror Visitor and everything I went through … For it was a very long process: between the first volume and the last, I spent twelve years of my life on it — but it also provided a ground where I had to meet many fears. Meet and embrace them.

So once this long process was over, I was ready. But I can understand. I can understand that every one may not be there yet. I think, for a book, the timing is important. There some books you cannot read before and you cannot read after. There's only a right time to read them. And for me, that was it.

To be continued in part 2 …

Interview by Ey@el
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