Jean-Claude Mourlevat – laureate 2021 1
Jean-Claude Mourlevat, author Terrienne (Gallimar
d Jeunesse, 2011) La rivière à l’envers (Pocket Junior, 2000 and 2002) ‘Terrienne is a dystopian fantasy that differs radically from any I have read before. Here, Mourlevat proves his ability to create unpredictable stories that surprise and affect his readers. His main character is a 17-year-old girl, and in Mourlevat’s depiction of her search for her missing sister, we pick up echoes of the terrifying tale of Bluebeard as well as the classical myth of Orpheus and Eurydice. The book takes us to a world that is bleak, efficient and well-organized, where people lead a kind of shadow life devoid of vitality and laughter. A battle for life and death is underway, and until the very end the outcome is in doubt.’ Lena Kåreland, professor of literature ‘La rivière à l’ènvers (‘The Flowing Backward River’) is something as unusual as a classic fairy tale for the 21st century. In tone, it recalls folk tales, chivalric romances, or the One Thousand and One Nights, and the story covers wide expanses of both space and time. As the main characters, Tomek and Hanna (both age 12), journey to the flowing backward river, whose waters give eternal life, they meet with many dangers and adventures: the Forest of Forgetting, the Island that Is Not, witches, pirate captains, and a village of perfumiers. Yet though they live in a fairy-tale world, Hannah and Tomek are modern characters with thoughts, dreams and emotions, and Mourlevat’s book is, at heart, a multilayered novel about lack, longing and love.’ Mårten Sandén, author 15 Photo: Matilda Rahm/Kulturhuset Stadsteatern