Lorraine. Julien Thèves: a pen that draws on the roots of the East

In 2018, Julien Thèves received the Marguerite Duras Prize for his novel "The Country from Which One Never Returns." In 2020, he moved to Scy-Chazelles, in a writers' residence, while writing "They Were from the East." The summers of the 1980s in the Vosges and Moselle, childhood, what remains of memories, the subject of his latest book resonates beyond the borders of Lorraine.

Julien Thèves was born in Strasbourg and lives in Paris. He writes for Le Monde and produces audio documentaries for France Culture. Photo Muriel Lacalmontie

Scy-Chazelles in autumn, in the middle of lockdown. Eight weeks alone, watching the first leaves fall, writing. Julien Thèves, 43, published his first book, "Précarité" (Precarity), in 1999. In October 2020, he was welcomed to Moselle as part of an author residency . On the heights of Metz, in the midst of the pandemic, he began writing his fifth book, "Ils était de l'Est" (They Were from the East).

In the footsteps of his family

"Fabienne Jacob, a friend and novelist from Moselle, told me about the writers' residency in Scy-Chazelles. I hesitated to apply; I needed a project. I said to myself, if I go to Lorraine, then I'll be following in my family's footsteps." His family, his grandparents. Because if Julien Thèves was born in...

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