Auteur de la semaine - Jakuta Alikavazovic

Jakuta Alikavazovic was born in 1979 in Paris, France to parents with Bosnian and Montenegrin origins. She was passionate about literature from a young age and attended the École Normale Supérieure in Cachan just outside of Paris. Alikavazovic went on to teach at the Sorbonne where she worked on a thesis focusing on “cabinets of curiosity and chambers of memory.” Her debut novel in 2007, Corps Volatil was met with great success and went on to win the Goncourt Prize. In addition to writing novels, Alikavazovic also writes a column for the French newspaper Libération and translates the works of famous anglophone authors such as Toni Morrison and David Foster Wallace. 

More recently, in 2024 she tackled genre of auto-fiction with her book Comme un ciel en nous (Like a Sky Inside). This story takes place in the beginning of March 2020 in the halls of the grand Louvre museum. The narrator has been granted permission to spend the night in this spectacular setting and as she wanders through the building she muses on her childhood and explores themes of immigration and belonging. Alikavazovic shows us the importance of the art object and its capacity to evoke specific memories and feelings. She uses the Ancient Greek statues she sleeps beside to tell stories of her past and reconcile her memories with the present. Comme un ciel en nous speaks to anyone that appreciates art and an engaging story.