For example,
Cheese maker houlgate, xavier maillotte:
With The last part of billiardsthe author of Houlgate (Calvados) Xavier Maillotte signs his fifth work. Furthermore, but probably the most personal. Therefore, After Several committed novels Combining black thriller. Nevertheless, environmental denunciation, this new opus marks a more intimate turn: A psychological thriller centered on human trajectories, family ties and the weight of the past.
A thriller. Therefore, but not just – Cheese maker houlgate, xavier maillotte
And The last part of billiards Fits in the police vein dear to the author, he stands out with a more introspective and sensitive writing. However, The investigation carried by four main characters explores the mechanics of crime less than faults, choices and memories. cheese maker houlgate, xavier maillotte For example, This book emphasizes the passage of time. to these decisions that we take or not and what we do with them.
“It is no longer the ideas that carry the novel, it is the characters,” says the author. And for good reason: the inspiration, this time, comes from the inside. The family house, the recent loss of her grandmother, the anecdotes transmitted from generation to generation … So many fragments of reality as a jersey has transformed into fiction.
A committed author. a literary turn
Former industrial engineer, Xavier Maillotte has long made the environment the engine of its writing: from hydrogen to organic vineyards, including struggles against the artificialization of land, its first four books, including two in e-book, laid a lucid look at our world.
In its previous black novels, polluting industry, economic drifts and social violence formed the backdrop. But this cheese maker houlgate, xavier maillotte time. change of focal length: The last part of billiards Anchors in the family memory, the silences, the secrets. “This novel is different, more literary, more rooted. I wanted to work the imagination with a sense of reality, ”he says.
Between cheese dairy. winter writing
Installed in Normandy, Xavier Maillotte shares his life between his cheese activity and writing, a seasonal alternation which allows him to put the words during the calm months. “It is winter that novels are born,” he said. Two years are generally necessary to mature a book: a year of reflection. then several months of writing, and finally the work of correction and publication.
Its link with its publisher. a small independent house, is solid: The last part of billiards is their third collaboration, and probably not the last. “It is a house on a human scale, with real freedom of tone. »»
A pouch for pouch, a possible suite
In this new novel, the detective Pochon, protagonist of the previous polars, is absent. But nothing is frozen: “He could come back to a next book. For the time being. the author evokes a possible break in the series, giving way to other stories, still fed by the 80s and 90s to which he remains attached.
The last part of billiards by Xavier Maillotte, by Les Presses Littéraires. 228 pages. 16 €.
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