Emmanuel Carrère, the alchemist of words between reportage and novel

Emmanuel Carrère is one of the favorite writers of journalists and readers seeking authentic stories, known for his unparalleled style blending fiction and reportage, and his ability to create a fluid narrative in which true anecdotes and entirely fictional episodes are difficult to distinguish. This realism is likely fueled by the fact that he has never paused his work as a reporter alongside that of a writer, and he still goes out into the field today to provide reports and chronicles that are published internationally. Also a screenwriter and director in his spare time, he has many skills that he skillfully alternates, adding a unique value to his literary works that makes him one of a kind and unmatched. This is the case with V13, his latest novel mixing judicial chronicle written after following the trial of the November 13 attacks and literature. Let's take a brief dive into the history of the writer's career and take a look at his latest work.

His career began in the 1980s as a film critic, but it wasn't until a few years later, in the early 2000s, that his professional trajectory took a significant turn with his novel The Adversary. After achieving early successes with novels such as The Mustache and The Snow Class, it was The Adversary that allowed him to find his writing voice and, more importantly, to introduce a new literary style previously unexplored in France: non-fiction. Indeed, the book, inspired by the trial of Jean-Claude Roman, who spent about twenty years deceitfully lying to his family about his life and profession before killing them once his secret was discovered to prevent them from speaking, is written in the first person and narrated as “I” by Carrère. This pronoun would not leave him, becoming his trademark and marking a before and after in his career.

Indeed, his initial fascination with mysticism and science fiction has permanently faded to make way for a raw and honest, direct realism. Although this use of the first person has not been universally accepted by his readers, even creating real indignation, with some even labeling him as narcissistic, he does not view it that way. "I feel that it's a form of honesty towards the reader, a way of telling them that I am not telling the truth, but that it is the truth I have perceived, understood, felt", he explains. This approach to the novel is quite similar to his approach to reportage, volunteering as a tool for disseminating these news items through a different medium: the book. He speaks of himself through others and uses his persona as a channel to tell others' stories.

His latest book, V13, is therefore, in addition to a judicial chronicle, a narrative of himself and others, the victims of the attacks as well as the victims of the fear these attacks have generated worldwide. The title is the shorthand for Friday the 13th, the ultimate bad omen, which, on November 13, 2015, indeed did not bring luck to Paris. The 9 months following that dark Friday saw more than 300 witnesses testify during the trial of the attacks, including survivors with heart-wrenching stories. The French-Georgian writer did not miss a beat and rendered it all in a weekly chronicle published in France and also in major national newspapers in Spain, Italy, and Switzerland. He has primarily created a literary condensation, which constitutes V13, adding a cultural and societal interpretation rather than just a simple report, thus encouraging reflection. A hard, heavy narrative in which the author perfectly captures the humanity of the subjects involved, whether it is moving, admirable, or monstrous.