Saint-Malo: Agnès Martin-Lugand, the Breton novelist who was worth two million pounds

By Samuel Sauneuf Published the updated on 10 Oct 18 at 12:19Le Pays MalouinSee my news

It's a great story. That of Agnès Martin-Lugand, 39, a native of Saint-Malo and who now lives in Rouen. This is the story of a young woman, a clinical psychologist by profession, who took advantage of her parental leave to write her first novel.

We are then in 2012. The publishing houses do not completely believe it and suggest that he rework his prose. Agnès Martin-Lugand improves it, refines it. To end up submitting it to the judgment of readers, via the Internet.

Happy people reading and drinking coffee come out on Amazon's Kindle platform for a few tens of cents. His many friends, the first, flock to the novel. It tipped off other readers and bloggers. Who in turn buy and above all love. With clicks on the web, its notoriety is growing day by day. An editor (Michel Laffon) smells the phenomenon and approaches the author.

The Lugand saga could begin...

“I have no right to be jaded. Never”

Agnès Martin-Lugand, it is today 6 books, more than 2 million copies sold, your writings translated in more than thirty countries, TV sets in the world entire. Isn't this all a bit dizzying?

Yes, it is. It's crazy, it happened so quickly... I feel like it was yesterday.

I try not to intellectualize everything that happens to me. I want to keep as much joy and the extraordinary side of everything that happens.

What is also wonderful is to see these readers who remain faithful to me, support me, wait for me.

When I go on a promo abroad, like in this small provincial town in Russia and I find myself there in front of a full amphitheater, I turn around and I say to myself: "It's not for me all that, it is not possible”. I find it just ex-tra-or-di-naire!

You should never be jaded to experience this kind of thing. We do not have the right.

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Which episode has marked you the most since your debut in 2013?

Every time I start writing a new novel again, I always have this question in my mind: “Are you going to make it? »

I'm starting a new story from scratch, face to face with new characters, which I have to part with and say goodbye almost a year later.

Then comes the moment when I find myself with my new book in my hands. It is each time a magical moment, a significant episode.

"My son has arrived and the desire to write has returned"

Writer, was it a little girl's dream?

Not at all. I didn't particularly like school and reading. I discovered the pleasure of writing at the end of my studies in psychology while writing my dissertation. I then liked to write and organize my thoughts around words. This pleasure has always remained in a corner of my head. The years passed, I practiced my job as a psychologist, then my son arrived and the desire to write returned...

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What do you need to write a book?

I can't write without music. Each scene has its piece. And if I don't have the right piece, I don't write, it's just a disaster. Hearing music will create an emotion in me, take me to an atmosphere, a particular atmosphere, a character... It will help me imagine a scene. (All the music corresponding to his books can be listened to on his website, Editor's note)

"I can't write without music"

Many of your fans wonder if you draw your stories from your own experience?

Never. Everything is imagined. It has nothing to do with my life. The places borrowed are generally places that I like. For the characters, I always start with this question: “Who do I want to spend time with in my head, what kind of personalities would I like to confront? ".

Is it said that the infamous movie producer Harvey Weinstein was interested in bringing one of your books to the screen?

Yes. But I never met him and from the moment the scandal broke, things were very clear: we broke the contract and we left on our side on something else. I have a cinema agent who manages all that, the possibilities of projects, etc. People are interested in bringing my stories to the screen. We'll see. Of course, if one day I go to the cinema, and I see my characters on screen, well embodied, yes, it will be extraordinary there again.

What do you aspire to now?

Continue to live my little life, enjoy my family, always have the opportunity to write stories and reach my readers.

"My whole family lives in Saint-Malo"

Who are your favorite authors?

There are several, including Douglas Kennedy, Alexandre Jardin. Overall, I really like historical novels.

I always have a book in progress and I am the kind of reader who lets herself be overwhelmed by the book and its characters. Except that when I write, there are a little too many people in my head at that time... So I drop my reading. I'm trying to catch up on my vacation.

Who is your first reader?

My husband. It is also my spillway, my outlet. When I have an idea in progress, I talk to him about it. It is the being on earth who is the least afraid to tell me things. His opinion is very important. He knows my characters almost as much as I do. Sometimes there are a lot of us at the table!

What link do you keep with Saint-Malo today?

My whole family lives there! My parents, my sisters. And all of dad's family is in Dinard. I was born in Saint-Malo (in 1979), I grew up there. I was educated at Sainte-Croix, rue Ville Pépin, then at the Collège du Sacré-Coeur before joining the Intra-Muros Institute. Like many high school students, I experienced the joy of swimming at lunchtime at Bon-Secours.

I try to come back often to Saint-Malo where I always spend part of my summers.

Collected by Samuel SAUNEUF

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