Gaëlle Bélem (born 1984) is a French writer of Réunionese extraction known for the prize-winning coming-of-age novelUn monstre est là, derrière la porte (2020), and the historical novelLe fruit le plus rare : ou la vie d'Edmond Albius (2023).[1]
In 2020 she published her first novel Un monstre est là, derrière la porte (translated title: A Monster is There, Behind the Door).[2][5][6] The novel was awarded the 2020 Grand prix du roman métis as well as the André-Dubreuil prize of the Société des gens de lettres for a first novel and was among the finalists for the Prix des cinq continents de la francophonie that year.[2][5][7]
Not an autobiographical novel, it relates with humor the story of a young girl growing up in a poor and dysfunctional family in Saint-Benoît.[3]
In 2023, Bélem published her second novel Le fruit le plus rare ou la vie d'Edmond Albius (translated title: The Rarest Fruit, or the Life of Edmond Albius), both a fictionalized historical biography of horticulturistEdmond Albius and an adventure novel.[8][9] Albius's novel technique revolutionized the cultivation of vanilla by making it possible to profitably grow Vanilla planifolia beyond its native habitat in Latin America.
Works
Bélem, Gaëlle (2022). Un monstre est là, derrière la porte. Collection Folio. Histoire, 7031 (in French). Paris: Gallimard. ISBN9782072963575. OCLC1306268362.
Bélem, Gaëlle (2023). Le fruit le plus rare : ou la vie d'Edmond Albius. Continents noirs (in French). Paris: Gallimard. ISBN9782073029898. OCLC1395542660.
^"Gaëlle Bélem". ilealapage.com (in French). Île à la Page. 26 August 2020. Retrieved 21 March 2024.
^ abcdef"Gaëlle Bélem". La Réunion des Livres (in French). La Réunion des Livres, Association interprofessionnelle des métiers du livre à La Réunion. 19 March 2020. Retrieved 2021-01-28.
Entretien avec Gaëlle Bélem on YouTube. Video duration 23m:21s. Uploader Romanska och klassiska institution, 20 October 2023. Gaëlle Bélem is interviewed about her novel Le fruit le plus rare ou la vie d'Edmond Albius (2023) during her visit to Stockholm in 2023. In French.