Presentation

     Yannick Haenel has selected thirteen moments of his life, as many as they are letters in his name and surname, and turned them into an autobiography. Thirteen key moments of revelation that have made him what he is today : one of the most original living French writers. Parties, sleepless nights, illnesses, drunkenness, and moments of illuminated solitude punctuate this auto portrait. Through these experiences, the writer embarks on an initiatory journey whose leitmotiv is the search of literature. We accompany him just outside a forest near Laon, inside his childhood room in Nigeria, to a secondary school in Alsace, a military school, a destroy hotel in London, a night train bound for Italy, to the Villa Medicis in Rome and to Paris of course, in the Luxembourg Gardens.
    Published in the collection « Traits et portraits » this book is illustrated by paintings, drawings and photographs selected by the author himself.

Yannick Haenel was born in 1967. His last two novels have both won prizes. Le Cercle (Gallimard, 2007) was awarded the Décembre Prize and the Prix Roger Nimier, and the widely translated Jan Karsky (Gallimard, 2009) received the Prix Interallié.