Marie Richeux “Brighten your day even in gray weather”

Since September, you have been producing Le Book Club on France Culture. Tell us about this show…

It’s a big daily conversation with authors who come to talk to us about their recently published books. We also come across works on a given theme, sometimes in resonance with current events. Every Friday, we visit a guest’s library, a way of taking their portrait.

What does your book Days of Birth reveal about you?

In this work, I recount the seven days which followed the supposed term of my pregnancy, seven days of waiting and proximity to the birth. I talk about my taste for joy, celebration and light.

Music that makes you happy in the morning?

The song My girl, by Otis Redding. It’s about a girl who knows how to brighten her day even when it’s gray. And my own daughters bring me this daily light.

The place that crosses generations in your family?

A corner of Brittany, between land and sea, where all my paternal family comes from. I love walking on this wild coast where I feel at home. It’s a kind of meditative practice.

The Proust madeleine from your childhood?

September , Barbara’s song. I, who was not a reader when I was little, maintained a very strong relationship with language through this song which lulled me as a child.

A gesture of happy sobriety?

I have been camping regularly for twenty years, always in a tent and without electricity. This simple gesture allows me to reduce my energy consumption.

Which beauty will save the world?

I am attached to the beauty of nature, life and art. I don’t know if she’ll save the world, but I’m sure she’ll save me, like so many other people.

We offer you immortality, do you sign?

No way ! Let us be happy to be mortal. In Achille , one of my first books, I have been thinking about this very question. By not fully immersing her child in the Styx, Achilles’ mother left him a part of vulnerability that brings him closer to us, simple mortals.