Not infrequently we hear it said that writers write, above all, for themselves. And surely there is part of reason in that assertion. It could not be otherwise for a job, a dedication, which entails hours of loneliness and downtime in the surrounding reality, when the author is absent to pose one and a hundred times the scenarios that make up a novel.
But… wouldn't it be more appropriate to say that an author writes, above all, for himself, if that writer were capable of writing a masterpiece and keeping it hidden from the general public?
This book The library of rejected books It raises this situation, it takes us away from the finalist ego of the author who wants to be read, in order to harbor that romantic idea of the writer who writes for himself, solely and exclusively.
The novel tells us about Henri Pick, who in light of his unpublished work The last hours of a love story, may have been a great author of his time. However, no one ever knew of his love for writing, not even his widow.
The story takes place in Crozon, a remote French town of just over 7.000 inhabitants, whose geographical location harmonizes with that idea of the author removed from the great cultural spaces of recognition and glory.
In that town, a librarian collects unpublished works, among which is Pick's novel. When a young editor discovers it and relaunches it to the world, its quality and its particular circumstances make it a bestseller.
But the seed of doubt always appears. Could it all be a business strategy? Is everything that is presented around the work and its author true? The reader will move along these unpredictable paths, between skepticism and the confidence that Henri Pick could have existed, as the world has come to know him.
You can now buy the book The Library of Rejected Books, the novel by David Foenkinos, here: