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Delphine de Vigan

Author of No and Me

20+ Works 3,125 Members 171 Reviews 3 Favorited

About the Author

Works by Delphine de Vigan

No and Me (2010) 996 copies, 36 reviews
Nothing Holds Back the Night (2011) 549 copies, 24 reviews
Based on a True Story (2015) 438 copies, 20 reviews
Underground Time (2009) 294 copies, 42 reviews
Gratitude (2019) 240 copies, 12 reviews
Kids Run the Show (2021) 212 copies, 10 reviews
Loyalties (2018) 207 copies, 15 reviews
Jours sans faim (2009) 100 copies, 5 reviews
Un soir de décembre (2005) 36 copies, 3 reviews
Les Jolis Garçons (2005) 31 copies, 1 review
Je suis Romane Monnier (2026) 9 copies
No és én 2 copies, 1 review
Na Rithe Beaga [Irish] (2022) 1 copy

Associated Works

La bibliothèque des écrivains: Le livre qui a changé leur vie (2021) — Contributor — 4 copies, 1 review

Tagged

21st century (10) biography (16) coming of age (12) contemporary (16) Delphine de Vigan (11) depression (20) ebook (20) family (45) fiction (123) France (98) French (56) French fiction (17) French literature (103) friendship (36) homelessness (56) in French (12) literature (19) loneliness (11) love (15) narrativa (14) novel (33) Novela (23) novel·la (14) Paris (43) read (13) Roman (72) suicide (21) to-read (163) YA (22) young adult (34)

Common Knowledge

Canonical name
Vigan, Delphine de
Other names
Delvig, Lou
Birthdate
1966-03-01
Gender
female
Education
Ecole des hautes études en sciences de l'information et de la communication, Celsa (Formation)
Occupations
Romancière
Scénariste
Organizations
Institut de sondage (Directrice d'études)
Awards and honors
Prix Renaudot (2015)
Relationships
Busnel, François (Compagnon)
Short biography
De Vigan wrote her first four novels by night while working at a public opinion firm in Alfortville by day. Her first published work, Jours sans faim (2001), was published under the pseudonym Lou Delvig, although since then she has written under her own name.[1]

Her breakthrough work was No et moi (2007), which won the Rotary International Prize in 2009 as well as France's prestigious Prix des libraires. The novel was translated into twenty languages and a film adaptation was released in 2010 (No et moi directed by Zabou Breitman).[1] Following the book's success, she became a full-time professional writer.

In 2011, her novel Rien ne s'oppose à la nuit ("Nothing holds back the night"), which deals with a family coping with a woman's bipolar disorder, won another clutch of French literary prizes, including the prix du roman Fnac, the prix Roman France Télévisions, the Grand prix des lectrices de Elle, and the Prix Renaudot des lycéens.
Nationality
France
Birthplace
Boulogne-Billancourt, Hauts-de-Seine, Île-de-France, France
Map Location
France

Members

Reviews

187 reviews
163 Seiten hat dieses schmale Büchlein, doch gut 40 davon sind nicht bedruckt. Bleiben also noch rund 120 Seiten Lektüre mit großzügig gesetztem Text - und das für 20 €. Wäre der Inhalt nicht so grandios, wäre dies eine Ein- oder Zwei-Sterne-Bewertung geworden. Aber der Text lässt mich dann doch darüber hinwegsehen ;-)
Michka ist eine ältere Dame, die irgendwann an einen Punkt gelangt ist, an dem sie nicht mehr alleine in ihrer Wohnung bleiben kann. Nicht nur ihre körperlichen show more Gebrechen machen ihr zu schaffen, auch die Schatten ihrer Vergangenheit rücken näher und versetzen sie mit Alpträumen in Angst und Schrecken. Dazu kommt der Verlust der Sprache, mit dem sie schwer zu kämpfen hat. Denn Sprache hat ihr Leben bestimmt als Korrektorin einer großen Zeitschrift und nun verliert sie Wort um Wort. Marie, eine junge Frau die ihr sehr nahe steht, kümmert sich um ihre Unterbringung in ein Pflegeheim, wo sie mit Jérôme, einem jungen Logopäden, zweimal die Woche Übungen macht.
Diese beiden Menschen berichten abwechselnd von ihrem Zusammensein mit Michka und dazwischen erfährt man nach und nach, woher ihre Alpträume kommen. Delphine de Vigans Sprache vermittelt voller Zartheit und Sanftmut, wie Michka um ihr Leben, ihre Sprache, ihre Würde kämpft. Der Verlust ihrer Worte ist beeindruckend und wirkungsvoll umgesetzt, indem zuerst nur Buchstaben verdreht werden, dann aber neue Wörter die alten ersetzen bis sie endgültig verschwinden.
Es ist ein trauriges Buch, doch mit vielen heiteren und warmherzigen Momenten. Und auch wenn ich am Schluss einige Tränen vergoss - es geht weiter. Ein altes Leben verschwindet, ein neues wird geboren.
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Liked it a lot, if by "liked" you mean "experienced a slightly nauseous feeling of creeping dread that didn't require anything more supernatural than people being dicks towards each other". A story of two 40-year-olds lost in Paris, tied together by invisible threads that aren't even allowed to snap. Good stuff.
In this very generous and compassionate novel, Vigan explores homelessness through the unlikely friendship of two teenage girls, No, broken living on the streets and Lou, living at home, both abandoned by their mothers, either physically or emotionally.
Lou, precocious and belonging to no social sphere, is able to reach out to No and bridge those unspoken barriers that exist in our many complicated social layers. With Lucas, also abandoned by this mother and living alone, they try to build show more their unique, safe haven despite grown-ups and rules. It is an experiment of sorts but one that has too many challenges - from the material, to the emotional and psychological, nothing is as linear as we would wish and little Lou has to come to this conclusion through experience rather than through books.
Touching and hopeful, this is a heart-warming coming of age story with difficult lessons.

I didn't love the translation - very British, I could easily read the French through the words. Maybe a good adaptation for a European audience, less so for an American one.
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[b:Underground Time|11354710|Underground Time|Delphine de Vigan|https://i.gr-assets.com/images/S/compressed.photo.goodreads.com/books/1316739929l/11354710._SY75_.jpg|7071230] was a library of friendship novel that I suspected might turn out to be a romance. While I was pleased to find it wasn't, the plot turned out to be much more depressing than I expected. It follows two Parisians, Mathilde and Thibault, through one day of their working lives. Both have really tough jobs, Thibault because show more he is a paramedic constantly dealing with emergencies and Mathilde because her boss is bullying and gaslighting her. Their thoughts and impressions are conveyed beautifully by the skillful writing and translation; unfortunately they are a total downer. Mathilde's experiences in the office are practically devastating, a reminder of how hellish work can be with an evil boss. As De Vigan puts it:

Laetitia's speeches, her no-nonsense language, her way of dividing the world in two, used to make Mathilde smile. Sometimes they disagreed. Now she wonders if Laetitia hasn't been right all along. If business isn't the ultimate testing ground for morality. If business isn't by definition a place of destruction. If business with its rituals, its hierarchy, its ways of functioning, is not quite simply the sovereign place of violence and impunity.


Even in translation that paragraph retains a strongly French vibe, as does the whole book. I appreciated the writing, although I can't say I enjoyed it as such. It offers the opposite of escapism: a visceral evocation of bad traffic, awful bosses, exhaustion, and similar daily miseries.
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Statistics

Works
20
Also by
1
Members
3,125
Popularity
#8,178
Rating
3.8
Reviews
171
ISBNs
285
Languages
17
Favorited
3

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