Author: Ivan Garcia
Ivan Garcia

IVAN GARCIA

Web editor at Le Temps newspaper and teaching trainee, Ivan Garcia is in charge of the Literature section at Regard Libre, where he writes regularly.

Blaise Hofmann, protean farmer

Blaise Hofmann, protean farmer

In October 2021, Morgian writer Blaise Hofmann published «Deux petites maîtresses zen». A text that recounts his Asian epic with his partner and two daughters, an adventure that came to an abrupt end with the appearance of Covid. The author, known for his travel stories and who was co-librettist of the Fête des vignerons (2019), lives from his pen and has decided to embrace a second profession, that of winemaker, in which he trained as an autodidact. In fact, he produces his own wine. The vine and the pen, a curious cocktail that caught our attention. As did his facet as a travel writer. But how does one travel «as a family» in different Asian countries, and what observations can one make about our society? Let's find out during our meeting.
Javier Cercas: «A writer who doesn't take risks isn't a writer».»

Javier Cercas: «A writer who doesn't take risks isn't a writer».»

LONG FORMAT INTERVIEW, Ivan Garcia | Every year, the «Le Livre sur les quais» festival in Morges is the rendezvous of the Swiss literary season, where authors, publishers and readers meet on the shores of Lake Geneva. For this twelfth edition, the honorary president of the event is none other than Spanish writer and translator Javier Cercas. Based in Catalonia, the columnist for the Spanish daily «El País» has been writing books since the 1980s. His best-selling novel, «The Soldiers of Salamis», published in 2001, features a journalist investigating a mysterious soldier who, during the Spanish Civil War, is said to have saved the ideologue and founding member of the Spanish Falange, Rafael Sánchez Mazas. Particularly interested in the history of contemporary Spain, from which he draws material for his writings, Javier Cercas has recently embarked on a series of detective novels centered around the detective-investigator Melchor Marin, the first part of which, «Terra Alta», was translated into French this year by Editions Actes Sud. Meet the writer on a September afternoon, under the «Livre sur les quais» authors' tent, to discuss his work and the situation in Spain and Catalonia.
42 | Russian author Zakhar Prilepine's political rifts

42 | Russian author Zakhar Prilepine's political rifts

ARTICLE LONG FORMAT, Ivan Garcia | Writer, journalist and soldier, Zakhar Prilepine is one of Russia's most critically acclaimed contemporary authors. Nostalgic for the USSR, opposed to government dictatorship and a nationalist who went to war alongside Russian secessionists in the Donbass, he is the representative of a generation torn between a grandiose past and a morose present. Portrait of a writer at odds with Russian power.