Leila Slimani: “I like the life I chose to have, of always being on the move, of living between worlds”

She was born 43 years ago in Rabat, lived in Paris and has been living in Lisbon since 2021. In this interview with VISÃO, which took place in the library of the National Museum of Ancient Art, where she usually writes, Leila Slimani says that she found in Portugal the “calm” and “tranquility” that she could no longer find in the French capital. She also says that it was in Lisbon that she once again saw the “horizon” of her Moroccan childhood. By publishing Levarei o Fogo Comigo (I Will Carry the Fire With Me), recently released in Portuguese bookstores in a translation by Tânia Ganho, the author completes a trilogy about three generations of women that is also an impressive portrait of the world, the history of a family and, in particular, the condition of women in recent decades. “I believe that women are not willing to go back. They will keep everything they have achieved”, she argues.

You have reached the last volume of the trilogy that began with The Country of Others . Did the fact that this book tells the story of your generation make it easier to write or, on the contrary, was it the most difficult? It was the most difficult, but I can't explain why. I can't even explain why I have that feeling. I don't know if it has to do with the period I'm reporting on, with the subject matter, or if it was simply due to my tiredness, the state I was in when I wrote it. But the truth is, this was the most difficult one to write.