Anna Gavalda

Author profile

born

December 09, 1970 in Boulogne-Billancourt, France

gender

female

genre

Literature & Fiction

About this author

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Anna Gavalda is a French teacher and award-winning novelist.

Referred to by Voici magazine as "a distant descendant of Dorothy Parker", Anna Gavalda was born in an upper-class suburb of Paris. While working as French teacher in high school, a collection of her short stories was first published in 1999 under the title "Je voudrais que quelqu'un m'attende quelque part" that met with both critical acclaim and commercial success, selling more than three-quarters of a million copies in her native France and winning the 2000 "Grand Prix RTL-Lire." The book was translated into numerous languages including in English and sold in twenty-seven countries. It was published to acclaim in North America in 2003 as "I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewh...more Anna Gavalda is a French teacher and award-winning novelist.

Referred to by Voici magazine as "a distant descendant of Dorothy Parker", Anna Gavalda was born in an upper-class suburb of Paris. While working as French teacher in high school, a collection of her short stories was first published in 1999 under the title "Je voudrais que quelqu'un m'attende quelque part" that met with both critical acclaim and commercial success, selling more than three-quarters of a million copies in her native France and winning the 2000 "Grand Prix RTL-Lire." The book was translated into numerous languages including in English and sold in twenty-seven countries. It was published to acclaim in North America in 2003 as "I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere." The book received much praise and is a library and school selection worldwide in several languages.

Gavalda's first novel, Je l'aimais (Someone I Loved) was published in France in February 2002 and later that year in English. Inspired by the failure of her own marriage, it too was a major literary success and a bestseller and was followed by the short (96 pages) juvenile novel 35 kilos d'espoir (95 Pounds of Hope) that she said she wrote "to pay tribute to those of my students who were dunces in school but otherwise fantastic people".

In 2004, her third novel, "Ensemble c'est tout," focused on the lives of four people living in an apartment house: a struggling young artist who works as an office cleaner at night, a young aristocrat misfit, a cook, and an elderly grandmother. The 600-page book is a bestseller in France and has been translated into English as Hunting and Gathering.

As of 2007, her three books have sold more than 3 million copies in France. Ensemble c'est tout was made into a successful movie in 2007 by Claude Berri, with Audrey Tautou and Guillaume Canet. The adaptation of her first novel, Je l'aimais, with Daniel Auteuil and Marie-Josée Croze, was filmed in 2009 by Zabou Breitman.

Divorced, and the mother of two, Gavalda lives in the city of Melun, Seine-et-Marne, about 50 km southeast of Paris. In addition to writing novels, she also contributes to Elle magazine.(less)

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Books by Anna Gavalda

Average rating: 3.78 · 8,051 ratings · 987 reviews · 10 distinct works

	Hunting and Gathering 4.09 avg rating — 3,532 ratings — published 2004 — 59 editions	My rating:
	I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere by Anna Gavalda, Karen L. Marker (Translator) 3.63 avg rating — 1,945 ratings — published 1999 — 44 editions	My rating:
	Someone I Loved by Anna Gavalda, Catherine Evans (Translator) 3.47 avg rating — 1,155 ratings — published 2002 — 50 editions	My rating:
	La consolante 3.40 avg rating — 496 ratings — published 2008 — 34 editions	My rating:
	L'Echappée belle 3.41 avg rating — 599 ratings — published 2001 — 35 editions	My rating:
	95 Pounds of Hope by Anna Gavalda, Gill Rosner (Translator) 3.70 avg rating — 326 ratings — published 2002 — 14 editions	My rating:
	Anna Gavalda Coffret 3 volumes 4.62 avg rating — 8 ratings	My rating:
	Ceux qui savent comprendront 4.17 avg rating — 6 ratings — published 2000	My rating:
	Xuntos e máis nada by Anna Gavalda, María Dolores Torres París (tradutora) 4.00 avg rating — 1 rating — published 2007	My rating:
	معًا 0.00 avg rating — 0 ratings — published 2012	My rating:

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Quotes by Anna Gavalda

“...But friends, those I wanted to please? There are so few, so few... and you're one of them. You... because you have such a gift for life. You grab hold of it with both hands. You move, you dance, you know how to make the rain and the sunshine in a home. You have this incredible gift for making people around you happy. You're so at ease, so at ease on this little planet...”
― Anna Gavalda

tags: anna-gavalda , beautiful , love , someone-i-loved

23 people liked it

“A pen, you see, you hold it between your thumb and your index finger. No, wait, you hold it however you want. After that, it's not hard, you don't even think about it. Your hands don't exist anymore. The important thing happens elsewhere. No, this won't do, it's still too pretty. You're not being asked to come up with something pretty, you know. No one gives a damn about pretty. There are children's drawings and glossy magazines for that. So put on your mittens, little genius, little empty shell, yes, go on, put them on, I tell you, and maybe at last you'll see, you'll draw an almost perfect failed circle.”
― Anna Gavalda

tags: anna-gavalda , hunting-and-gathering

12 people liked it

“How could you let yourself be sidetracked while I was waiting for your breath on my back?”
― Anna Gavalda, I Wish Someone Were Waiting for Me Somewhere

11 people liked it

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Polls

What should be our group read for September/October?

Winter's Tales by Karen Blixen

5 votes, 55.6%

The Ravishing of Lol Stein by Marguerite Duras

2 votes, 22.2%

The Death of the Heart by Elizabeth Bowen

1 vote, 11.1%

Hunting and Gathering by Anna Gavalda

1 vote, 11.1%

I, Claudius by Robert Graves

0 votes, 0.0%

9 total votes

10 comments

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