Anna Gavaldá was born on December 9, 1970 in the French city of Boulogne-Belancourt. It is curious that even her great-grandmother, a native of St. Petersburg, had a surname like "Fulda", but changed under the influence of the pronunciation of French officials. From childhood, Anna was a terrible inventor, which did not prevent her from doing well at school. Most of all, she loved to write essays, and the teacher read almost all of her work to the class as an example. Anna was fourteen years old when her parents divorced, and the girl had to live and study in a boarding school.

Anna Gavalda continued her education at the Sorbonne and in her student years worked a lot - as a waitress, cashier and journalist. She had to work so that every day she had breakfast and, preferably, dinner, and the girl did not at all think then that the experience and impressions she had gained would be useful to her later in writing books that became famous. She also took part in competitions. In 1992, Anna won first place in the French competition "Best Love Letter". This competition was held by a well-known national radio station, and Anna Gavalda, with her short letter, in some ten lines, could not even imagine that she would become the first among thousands of applicants. The letter was written on behalf of a young man, which surprised the jury very much - the girl understood and highlighted the psychology of the opposite sex so deeply.

Anna could not pass her final exams at the Sorbonne, and therefore, instead of working as a journalist, she took up another business - teaching French to first-graders in one of the colleges. In the mid-nineties, Anna Gavalda got married, but she does not like to remember this - a few years later her husband left her, leaving two children as a memory of herself - son Louis (born in 1996) and daughter Felicite (born in 1999). On the other hand, perhaps it was the worries about the destroyed family that prompted Anna to serious literary work. In her free time, she made up various stories, and then began to write them down. That is how her first book, consisting of short stories, turned out. True, while not counting herself among the writers, Anna Gavalda became a very prominent French author, especially since in 1998 she won three literary competitions at once and received the very prestigious French literary award "Blood in the Inkwell" - for her short story "Aristote" .

Anna Gavalda's collection of short stories “I Wish Someone Was Waiting for Me Somewhere” was published in 1999 and the book was exceptionally warmly received by critics, and the very next year, 2000, it received the RTL Grand Prix. As for the general public, in the very first weeks of sales, France was captivated by the talent of the young writer. This success is also surprising in that the genre of the short story has ceased to be fashionable, and Anna Gavalda has literally revived interest in modern short stories. Over the next four years, the book was translated into thirty languages, which quite adequately reflects the attitude towards the brightly flashed new star of French literature.

Anna Gavalda's first novel was published in 2002. The book titled "I Loved Him" ​​was swept off the shelves, but this was only the beginning of real success. Two years later, Anna Gavalda published Just Together, and its popularity in France was overshadowed by the famous The Da Vinci Code, and according to readers, the novel was unparalleled among the literary works of recent years. This book by Gavalda received many literary awards and raised interest in the writer's previous work. All three of her books were reprinted in unprecedented editions, well over a million copies, and the last sold in the amount of two million copies. The financial result was also pleasant - Anna Gavalda earned thirty-two million euros with her books.

Naturally, the work of the writer became interested in cinema. In the spring of 2007, director Claude Berry released the film Just Together on the big screen in France. This film starred such "whales" of cinema as Guillaume Cannet and Audrey Tautou. Film critics responded with great enthusiasm to the film, and the opinion of the audience can be assessed by the fact that in just one month of rental, "Just Together" was watched by more than two million people. The Sixth International Forum of Literature and Cinema, held in Monaco, also appreciated the director's work in this film - Claude Berry was awarded the prize for the best and most accurate adaptation of the novel into cinema.

Two years later, in 2009, based on the novel by Anna Gavalda “I loved her. I loved him,” directed by Isabelle Brightman created a film version starring Daniel Auteuil. The work of Anna Gavalda generally became in demand in the cinema of France. In 2010, the picture “35 kilos of hope” appeared on television screens based on the book of the writer, written in 2002 for teenagers. Anna Gavalda managed in this book not only to penetrate the complex children's world, but also to find points that actually determine the future fate of children.

Anna's following novels - "The consolation game of petanque" and "A sip of freedom" became no less famous in the world. The writer is also known in Russia - her novels have been translated into Russian. Several times Anna Gavalda visited our country and even says in an interview that in her old age she would like to work in the Hermitage. She claims that she does not like her popularity, because fame is very harmful to creativity - after all, it is very difficult to watch people being famous. Anna does not even put her photographs in books and rarely appears on television, and therefore she is not often recognized on the streets.

Anna Gavalda currently lives in Melun, is engaged in raising children and writes stories and articles for Elle magazine. The children are not yet going to follow in the footsteps of their mother - Louis is passionate about botany, and Felicite dreams of a career as Coco Chanel.

Because of the ironic, elegant and very realistic books, this Frenchwoman is called the “new Françoise Sagan”, and her books are a real pleasure for true connoisseurs of French charm and good literature.

The name of Anna Gavalda is not yet well known to the Russian reader, although a collection of her short stories, “I Wish Someone Was Waiting for Me Somewhere,” published a little over a year ago, attracted the attention of both readers and critics. In this case, despite the close Russian-French cultural ties, our fatherland is somewhat behind the European public, which already knows this brand well. Beneath it come the world's most read books, such as Just Together, a best-selling novel in France, translated into 36 languages ​​and prompting the start of a feature film starring Charlotte Gainsbourg.

- Anna, why does your book have a happy ending?

You know, this is the first happy ending in my life. I used to always leave the end open. So that the reader can't tell if the story ended well or badly. But in this book… You see, the characters in this book were unhappy for so long, they had to go through so much, they felt lonely, rejected for so long… In general, I just wanted to let them be happy. It's not like the real ending. Such is the "god from the machine." You know, like in the plays of classicism, when it seems that everything is terrible, and suddenly, miraculously, everything becomes good.

- That is, you yourself do not believe that the people you described can do well?

No, I do not believe that such people in real life can just get married and be happy. But I didn't want the end to be the same as in life. This is a fairytale. A fairy tale should have a happy ending. Because life is not like that at all.

- The ending is fabulous, and the story itself is based on some real events? Have you experienced any similar situation in your life?

No no. It's all fictional. Initially, I wanted to write a book about a chef. And in general about the people who stand at the stove - in restaurants, in cafes. I have always admired chefs because they work very hard and hard. And besides, I wanted to write a love story that takes place between two very different people and begins with some kind of conflict situation. It was interesting for me to describe how these two people constantly collide in some territory, how they interfere with each other, how they fight each other, try to force each other to change positions. To be honest, when I started writing this novel, I still didn’t really know what it would be about. I just came up with characters and started writing, and then followed them. For me, for example, it was a complete surprise that Philibert was marrying Susie. I didn't plan anything like this in the first place.

- Did you also write off the Philibert family from life? Or did you meet such families?

Philibert's family just has a prototype. Even a few. I had to meet representatives of such aristocratic families who live according to some old customs and traditions. In these apartments. You know, there are still quite a few apartments in Paris that look like they are in the yard of the 19th century. And people who live as if there is no technological progress. And they absolutely do not care that they look out of date. They live in some kind of their little world, but they don’t care about the world around them.

- Tell us, please, how did you start writing? Have you wanted to do this since childhood?

Before I started writing, I never thought that I would become a writer. Actually, I said that I want to become a journalist. But in fact, apparently, she didn’t really want to, because she failed the exams. I ended up teaching French. In the first grade of college, eleven and twelve year olds. So for a while I was a teacher. And then she started writing. I have a few ideas for stories. I wrote down these stories, and from them my first book came out.

- It ends with a story about an aspiring writer and her communication with a publisher. Is this your own experience?

No, it's all fiction. That is, of course, the feeling of a young woman who sends her first manuscript to the publisher - how worried she is, how scared she is - all this is kind of familiar to me. But my story actually turned out differently. They immediately told me no, no one even wanted to meet with me. And then one publisher agreed to publish my stories. But we didn’t meet either – we just talked on the phone. So at first I thought it was a joke.

Are your books not autobiographical at all?

No. Not at all.

- It's so atypical for a woman writer. Women writers often enjoy writing books about themselves and their lives.

I don't think you are right. At the very least, you are unlikely to be right about great female writers. I don’t know how it is in Russia, but for French writers this statement is unfair. George Sand, Francoise Sagan - they never wrote about themselves. As for me, I'm just not interested in writing about myself. This topic does not intrigue me too much. About anything but yourself. In order to write about yourself, you need to be a genius.

- Is there really no one among your characters who looks like you?

No, I wouldn't say. As a child, I wanted to be a boy. And most of my characters are men. For example, the book that I am writing now is about male friendship. That is, there both main characters are men.

- But your characters are a bit similar to each other. For example, they are all strange.

Strange people both in life and in literature seem to me more interesting. I've always preferred marginals.

- And lonely.

Aren't all people lonely? Even if they have friends, they are still lonely at heart. Is not it so?

- And they almost all have problems with their mothers. Why?

That's a good question. My next book, the one about male friendship, will have a beautiful portrait of the mother. And in all my previous books, the mothers of the characters are really given some not very good roles. I even do not know why. I have the best mom. In the next book, the mother of one of the young people will become the heroine of the book, and she is a very good person.

- I really liked the story where a woman meets a man on Saint-Germain Boulevard and he invites her on a date. How did this story come about?

I was walking down Saint-Germain Boulevard one day and I saw an attractive man. But there was no story. He just looked at me, nothing more. He didn't come up and ask me out on a date. But I thought, what would happen if he did? And then everything played out in my imagination. And it was just the time when everyone began to have mobile phones. They called all the time at the most inopportune moment, and it was terribly annoying.

- You are now very popular in France. How do you feel about your fame?

Oh, I hate her. You see, in my opinion, fame is very harmful to the writer. My life, my work, my pleasure is to be a witness and observe people. This is the main beauty of what I do. But when everyone recognizes you, it is no longer possible to observe and go unnoticed.

- Are you often recognized on the street?

So far, fortunately, not so much. I don't put my photo on the books on purpose. Besides, I don't appear on TV very often because I don't like it. In general, while they recognize me very, very rarely. And this is good.

Amateur Success

Although Anna Gavalda claims that she did not intend to become a writer, she wrote from the age of 17, participated in small-scale literary competitions and won from time to time. The name of Anna Gavalda sounded in 1999, when, after the refusal of several publishers, Le Dilettante published her collection of short stories. to the fact that presented the reader with such an unfashionable genre of the story today. Another three years passed before Gavalda reappeared on the literary scene - now with the novel I Loved Him. But this was all just a prelude to the real success that Anna Gavalda brought in 2004 with the book Just Together, which overshadowed even the Da Vinci Code in France. Now the 35-year-old writer lives in Paris, has two children and continues to write books.

On December 9, 1970, Anna Gavalda was born in the French city of Boulogne-Belancourt. It is curious that even her great-grandmother, a native of St. Petersburg, had a surname like "Fulda", but changed under the influence of the pronunciation of French officials. From childhood, Anna was a terrible inventor, which did not prevent her from doing well at school. Most of all, she loved to write essays, and the teacher read almost all of her work to the class as an example. Anna was fourteen years old when her parents divorced, and the girl had to live and study in a boarding school.

Anna Gavalda continued her education at the Sorbonne and worked a lot during her student years - as a waitress, cashier and journalist. She had to work so that every day she had breakfast and, preferably, dinner, and the girl did not at all think then that the experience and impressions she had gained would be useful to her later in writing books that became famous. She also took part in competitions. In 1992, Anna won first place in the French competition "Best Love Letter". This competition was held by a well-known national radio station, and Anna Gavalda, with her short letter, in some ten lines, could not even imagine that she would become the first among thousands of applicants. The letter was written on behalf of a young man, which surprised the jury very much - the girl understood and highlighted the psychology of the opposite sex so deeply.

Anna could not pass her final exams at the Sorbonne, and therefore, instead of working as a journalist, she took up another job - teaching French to first-graders in one of the colleges. In the mid-nineties, Anna Gavalda got married, but she does not like to remember this - a few years later her husband left her, leaving two children as a memory of herself - son Louis (born in 1996) and daughter Felicite (born in 1999). On the other hand, perhaps it was the worries about the destroyed family that prompted Anna to serious literary work. In her free time, she made up various stories, and then began to write them down. That is how her first book, consisting of short stories, turned out. True, not yet counting herself among the writers, Anna Gavalda became a very prominent French author, especially since in 1998 she won three literary competitions at once and received the very prestigious French literary award "Blood in the Inkwell" - for her short story "Aristote" .

Anna Gavalda's collection of short stories “I Wish Someone Was Waiting for Me Somewhere” was published in 1999, and the book was exceptionally warmly received by critics, and the very next year, 2000, it received the RTL Grand Prix. As for the general public, in the very first weeks of sales, France was captivated by the talent of the young writer. This success is also surprising in that the genre of the short story has ceased to be fashionable, and Anna Gavalda has literally revived interest in modern short stories. Over the next four years, the book was translated into thirty languages, which quite adequately reflects the attitude towards the brightly flashed new star of French literature.

Anna Gavalda's first novel was published in 2002. The book titled "I Loved Him" ​​was swept off the shelves, but this was only the beginning of real success. Two years later, Anna Gavalda published Just Together, and its popularity in France was overshadowed by the famous The Da Vinci Code, and according to readers, the novel was unparalleled among the literary works of recent years. This book by Gavalda received many literary awards and raised interest in the writer's previous work. All three of her books were reprinted in unprecedented editions, well over a million copies, and the last sold in the amount of two million copies. The financial result was also pleasant - Anna Gavalda earned thirty-two million euros with her books.

Naturally, the work of the writer became interested in cinema. In the spring of 2007, director Claude Berry released the film Just Together on the big screen in France. This film starred such "whales" of cinema as Guillaume Cannet and Audrey Tautou. Film critics responded with great enthusiasm to the film, and the opinion of the audience can be assessed by the fact that in just one month of rental, "Just Together" was watched by more than two million people. The Sixth International Forum of Literature and Cinema, held in Monaco, also appreciated the director's work in this film - Claude Berry was awarded the prize for the best and most accurate adaptation of the novel into cinema.

Two years later, in 2009, based on the novel by Anna Gavalda “I loved her. I loved him,” directed by Isabelle Brightman created a film version starring Daniel Auteuil. The work of Anna Gavalda generally became in demand in the cinema of France. In 2010, the picture “35 kilos of hope” appeared on television screens based on the book of the writer, written in 2002 for teenagers. Anna Gavalda managed in this book not only to penetrate the complex children's world, but also to find points that actually determine the future fate of children.

Anna's following novels - "The consolation game of petanque" and "A sip of freedom" became no less famous in the world. The writer is also known in Russia - her novels have been translated into Russian. Several times Anna Gavalda visited our country and even says in an interview that in her old age she would like to work in the Hermitage. She claims that she does not like her popularity, because fame is very harmful to creativity - after all, it is very difficult to watch people being famous. Anna does not even put her photographs in books and rarely appears on television, and therefore she is not often recognized on the streets.

Anna Gavalda currently lives in Melun, is engaged in raising children and writes stories and articles for Elle magazine. The children are not yet going to follow in the footsteps of their mother - Louis is passionate about botany, and Felicite dreams of a career as Coco Chanel.

Because of the ironic, elegant and very realistic books, this Frenchwoman is called the “new Francoise Sagan”, and her books are a real pleasure for true connoisseurs of French charm and good literature.

On the subscription of the library No. 32 named after. M. Gorky arranged a book exhibition "The Star of French Literature", dedicated to the work of Anna Gavalda. The exhibition presents books from the stock of our library, - says Lyudmila Vasilievna Davydova, head of the M. Gorky library's subscription.

Anna Gavalda is a famous French writer who has conquered the whole world with her work. Her books have been translated into 36 languages ​​and published in millions of copies.

Literary critics call her the "star of French literature" and predict the glory of Francoise Sagan.

However, Anna Gavalda does not like her popularity, because she believes that fame is very harmful to creativity - after all, it is very difficult to watch people being famous. Therefore, she does not put her photographs in books, rarely appears on television, she is rarely recognized on the street.

What can a young, elegant, charming French woman talk about? Of course, about love, friendship, family and kinship relationships, in general, about life in all its manifestations.

In her novels, she creates a world that seems simple and understandable to every person, regardless of where he was born and lives.

Books are read easily, as they say, in one breath. And the secret, perhaps, lies also in the fact that the writer's work gives great pleasure to the author himself. The writer spoke about this repeatedly in her interviews. A book written with love evokes a response from its readers as well.

Like all children, she went to school, after the divorce of her parents she lived and studied in a boarding house, her student years were spent at the Sorbonne.

Before becoming a professional writer, she worked as a waitress, cashier, journalist, and taught French.

She did not think about a writing career, but she loved to write since childhood. Her school compositions were always the best.

In 1992, Anna took part in the Best Love Letter competition, which was held in France by one of the famous radio stations. Unexpectedly for herself, she became the winner. The jury of the competition not only liked the text of the letter, but was also surprised by the fact that it was written by a young girl on behalf of a man.

In the mid-nineties, Anna Gavalda got married, but the marriage was unsuccessful. A few years later, the couple divorced, and since then Anna Gavalda has been raising her son Louis and daughter Felicite alone. This fact of the biography of the writer is important because it is from this moment that she begins to seriously engage in creativity. Experiencing the situation, she invented various stories, and then began to write them down. That is how her first book, “I Wish Someone Was Waiting for Me Somewhere,” consisting of short stories, came about. It was not easy to publish the first book. The author sent the manuscript of the book to several publishers. Almost everyone refused to publish it, referring to the fact that "they don't read stories and don't buy them." But in one they nevertheless took a chance and did not lose. The entire circulation of the book, published in 1999, was sold out. Thus, the readers proved that it is not so much the genre of the work that is important, but its content and the talent of the author. The book was also appreciated by critics, and readers remembered the new name. The very first novel by Anna Gavalda “I loved her. I loved him”, released in 2002, immediately became a bestseller. In the same year, the book "35 kilos of hope" was published, addressed to children.

But Anna Gavalda gained real fame as a novelist after the release of the novel “Just Together” in 2005. The success was amazing. 2 million copies of the book have been sold to readers. The novel was awarded several literary prizes.

Luck did not go to the head of the young author. Every time she starts a new book, Anna Gavalda feels like a debutante and is not sure that the next book will be as successful as the previous one. So far, however, her worries seem unfounded. All subsequent novels - "The consolation game of petanque" (2008), "A sip of freedom" (2010), "Billy" (2013), "Jan" (2014), "Matilda" (2015) became no less popular and famous in the world.

Her books seem simple and light, but catchy and are not forgotten for a long time. Perhaps this simplicity is achieved by the subtle and smallest details that Anna knows how to notice.

Each novel teaches the reader to discover the best facets of his soul, not be afraid to be honest with himself, never lose hope and love this world, no matter what.

The plots of novels, as a rule, are simple and uncomplicated and, according to the author, are pure fiction. “I have never met prototypes of my heroes in my life. Of course, I draw inspiration from some people, meetings, but then it all gets mixed up. When creating heroes, I often find myself thinking that I would like to meet these people in my life, so that they would be my friends, but they do not exist,” says A. Gavalda. Thinking up the world in which her characters live, the writer never knows what the final will be. It's like in life when you don't know what's going to happen the next day. "You can say that I write books to find out the ending."

The works of A. Gavalda turned out to be interesting not only for readers, but also for cinematographers. Her three novels are “Just Together”, “I loved her. I loved him "and" 35 kilos of hope "very successfully filmed.

It turns out that the interest of Anna Gavalda and Russian readers is mutual.

“I wish someone was waiting for me somewhere…”

The life of every person is woven from moments. Some pass without leaving a trace in the memory, others can dramatically change it. You never know how everything will turn out and why sometimes some trifle suddenly acquires the scale of a catastrophe. 12 stories will tell about such events. You will read about the tragedy of a mother who lost her child even before the birth, and about an unexpected meeting on the street of a man and a woman, a funny story about an expensive car, a wild boar and two young drunk guys. And everything is written simply, easily, unpretentiously, with humor.

“I loved her. I loved him"

Everyone wants to love and be loved. But how to keep this feeling for many years? Chloe's husband, Adrian, leaves for another. The young woman is at a loss, she does not know what to do and how to live on. History is as old as the world. But everyone lives it in their own way. Adrian's father, Pierre, takes Chloe and her two daughters to a country house. There he tells her the story of his love, which he kept a secret for 20 years.

A book about love, loyalty, difficult family relationships.

"Just together"

Young talented, but strange in the eyes of others, artist Camilla, who is also forced to work as a cleaner, meets her neighbor. Stuttering, clumsy Philibert is a descendant of an old family, a connoisseur of history, an eccentric with a rich inner world. After some time, due to certain circumstances, she moves to his apartment, where she finds not only shelter, but also warmth. Frank also lives there - a rude simple guy, a cook from God, relations with whom at first do not add up, but then a deep affection arises between Camilla and Frank.

Three very lonely people who are not too lucky either with family or with character, helping each other, gain harmony and interest in life. Through quarrels and reconciliations, disputes and agreement, holding together, they become stronger, kinder, more understandable to each other and others.

"35 kilos of hope"