Recently, the new full-length biographical novel "War, War, War" by Leila Slimani, winner of the Goncourt Literary Prize and a genius born in the 1980s in France, was launched by Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House·KEY-Can Culture. This book is the first novel written by

Leila Slimani

Recently, the new full-length biographical novel "War, War, War" by Leila Slimani, winner of the Goncourt Literary Prize and a genius born in the 1980s in France, was launched by Zhejiang Literature and Art Publishing House·Key-Can Culture. This book is the first novel written by Leila after winning the Goncourt Literary Prize. It is the first Chinese translation and publication in the world, and it was translated and introduced by the well-known French translator Yuan Xiaoyi. Yuan Xiaoyi once won the Literary Award at the 10th Fu Lei Translation and Publishing Award for her translation of Leila Slimani's award-winning work "Song of Tenderness".

The story told in "War, War, War" has its historical prototype. It was created by Leila based on the real life experiences of three generations of women in her family. The novel is set against the backdrop of the drastic changes in social life in French Morocco after World War II. It tells the story of a country in deep political identity crisis, an interracial mixed-race family, and how an exhausted woman searches for her own identity in a turbulent world. .

Female writer at the opening ceremony of the Paris Olympics: her writing " wildly blooming "

At the opening ceremony of the 2024 Paris Olympics, the young name "Leila Slimani", the same as the 17th century Classical drama master Molière, modern short story king Maupassant, Nobel Prize winner Anne Ernault and other literary celebrities appeared side by side. As one of the nine writers representing French literature, he is the youngest and oldest among them. The most vivid contemporary literary force.

Leila Slimani was born in 1981 and grew up in Rabat, the capital of Morocco. She later went to Paris to study and worked as a reporter for Young Africa before turning to literary creation. In 2016, Leila, who was only 35 years old, won the Prix Goncourt for her second novel "Songs of Tenderness", becoming the first Moroccan woman to win this award. After that, Layla created non-fiction works represented by "Sex and Lies". For her literary achievements, Leila was also awarded the French Order of Arts and Letters and was invited to serve as a judge for the Booker International Literature Prize in 2023.

Layla's writing clearly focuses on social issues such as women, immigrants, ethnic minorities, and class relations. She applies her social concerns, sharp insights, and precise analysis as a journalist to her literary imagination and creation. As a reviewer said, her writing "blooms wildly" in the complex and contradictory contemporary social reality. "The Guardian" commented that his literary language has "dangerous magic and shocking senses"; "The New York Times" highly praised the social nature of his writing, saying that "no one can write about motherhood like Slimani"; Leila herself made a straightforward and fearless statement for her creation: "I have always written about women, hegemony and violence." In 2020, Leila won the Simon Award for her active role in fighting for abortion rights and sexual freedom in Morocco. Jeanne de Beauvoir Women's Freedom Prize.

A female perspective " war novel " : Seeing the silent individual destiny

The novel begins with a strange combination: in 1947, the Alsatian girl Mathilde flew to Morocco alone to fight in the war Meet the interracial husband. This interracial marriage is the real life experience of Layla's grandmother. They have different skin colors, different languages, different beliefs, and different cultures, but they have built a weird mixed-race family. In a land where racial conflicts continued to intensify in post-war French Morocco, this family was destined to be scarred.

Leila Slimani

From the beginning, Leila has been describing this "dangerous criticality" to her heart's content. In the novel, everyone is struggling to survive on blurred boundaries of identity, trapped in an anxious state of "war." What Leila calls "war" actually has three meanings: first, the struggle for national independence broke out in Morocco, which was in a political identity crisis after the war; second, mixed-race families in a precarious era are constantly struggling with racial discrimination and cultural rifts. and the confrontation with poverty life; the third is a woman in an interracial marriage, trying her best to face the cruel daily life.

On one side is a country striving for independence, on the other side are women trapped in family life; on the other side are artillery fire, blood and conflicts, on the other side are wars without gunpowder and hidden violence. Leila is obviously more obsessed with depicting the latter, she said: “I would like to compare the individual destiny of women with the country’s struggle for independence.” She described in detail the outstretched hands of an old woman who had been confined under a burqa all her life, “brown and full of wrinkles” and “like a book without "The book of words generally carries this woman's life"; she writes about Muslim girls who generally suffer from sexual repression, and writes about their "scorching flames hidden under veils and skirts"; she writes about women trapped in domestic labor, and writes about the women who are trapped in domestic labor. The meals consumed with countless open mouths, the lullabies dissipated in the air, describe their loneliness when they finally realize that they may have "nothing"...

Although it is named "War", this work is not a typical one. "War novel" can even be said to be a work that attempts to deconstruct the "sublime" and use a female perspective to see the folded and silent fate and trauma in the grand narrative. In the interview, Leila made it clear that it is crucial to open the closed door of the home and focus on the life hidden behind the door. In the novel, she wrote: “In this land, there are too many silent fates that do not allow sadness.”

Written by: Nandu reporter Zhu Rongting