Interview conducted by Pascal Schouwey, independent journalist.
Emma Becker’s Mr (Denoël, 2011) explores, through a dual autofictional lens, the erotic influence of a surgeon who is a family friend. The book was translated into fourteen languages. La Maison (Albin Michel, 2019) is a bold autofiction about her time in a Berlin brothel between 2014 and 2016. It sold 40,000 copies in just four months and won several awards, including the Prix du roman des étudiants France Culture – Télérama 2019, before being adapted into a film by director Anissa Bonnefont in 2022. Her fifth novel, Odile l’été (Julliard, 2023), was commissioned by Vanessa Springora for the Fauteuses de trouble collection.
Le Mal Jolie (Albin Michel, 2024) won the Prix de la rentrée at the Festival Les Écrivains chez Gonzague Saint Bris and was a finalist for the Prix Femina. Known for her raw and direct writing, Becker’s work confronts the most dangerous and intense moments of life, asking how far one can use personal experiences as raw material for writing without self-destruction—and whether everything can be written in literature.
In French.
