Gaëlle Bélem, moving forward in disguise
Published on
Gaëlle Bélem has been shortlisted for the 2025 International Booker Prize,
with her novel "A Monster Is There, Behind the Door." Francesca Mantovani/Éditions Gallimard
At 40, this writer from Réunion Island with a vigorous and elegant style emerged on the international scene with her first novel, A Monster is There, Behind the Door, while she published her third book in France, Sud sauvage, a thrilling collection of fantastic short stories.
It's a burst of charm and smiling energy that makes her entrance at the Zimmer café on Place du Châtelet in Paris, where she holds her meetings. With her fitted outfit on a perfect silhouette, her sleek, shiny hair, her XXL false eyelashes, and her green eyes that owe more to her colored contact lenses than to mixed race, Gaëlle Bélem evokes a Betty Boop from Reunion Island. After a stay in London and before packing her bags for her return flight to Saint-Denis, generous with her time, she speaks in a stream of elegant words, chiseled sentences, with a rare quality of diction and a discreet theatricality.
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