Description
Book Synopsis'The best early training for a writer is an unhappy childhood,' Hemingway famously said. Julia Kerninon, one of France's most acclaimed young novelists, tells an altogether different story in a poetic account of her pursuit. Her vibrant ode to reading, and to writing as a space for discovery (as well as a 'respectable occupation') entwines the French and Anglo-Saxon literary traditions as she journeys fluidly through her formative years. From her native Brittany to the city of Shakespeare and Company, to a seaside cafe on the Atlantic coast, to Budapest and back, the author conjures a feminine answer to A Moveable Feast.
Trade Review‘Borne along by Kerninon’s long, joyful sentences (nimbly translated by Ruth Diver), it’s a winning account of her journey from reader to writer.’ — Francesca Carington, Tatler (Best Books of Summer 2020); ‘A loose but very charming longform essay about writing and being a writer (…) In the anecdotal and at times very funny prose of A Respectable Occupation we follow Kerninon's childhood fascination with bookshops, her obsessive consumption and production of words' – Robert Greer, The Idler; ‘A female manifesto for a writer’s life (...) a lyrical reminder of the hard (and indeed often unrelated) work it takes to be a wordsmith, which is justified daily in the joy of putting pen to paper and writing book after book.’ — Mia Colleran, The Irish Times; ‘Marvellously contagious.’ — Le Point; ‘Julia Kerninon lays down sentences as definitive as dictums, impresses with her maturity of style and command of narrative. The reader plunges in, with the same voraciousness she puts into her writing.’ — ELLE (France)
