This Tuesday, January 2, Philippe Besson was the guest of Bernard Lehut on RTL. The writer, who is preparing the release of his new novel on January 4broke the silence by sharing for the first time his fight against cancer, a battle he fought courageously for two long years. The author of bestsellers such as Stop with your lies or A certain Paul Darrigrand confided in its current statebut also on complex and deep emotions who accompanied him throughout this ordeal.
“You live with the awareness of your finitude, a kind of fundamental, essential vulnerability. So it’s true that it helps you to savor life in a certain way, to be even closer to your loved ones, to your loves, but at the same time, It makes you live with worry all the time.”, explained Philippe Besson, describing the psychological burden of fighting the disease. With touching sincerity, he also spoke of his remission, a term he described as “curious” And “worrisome” recognizing that he would have preferred to hear the word “healing”. Indeed, the 56-year-old writer made it clear that it was not yet the time for him. “I might be entitled to it after five years“he confided with a touch of fragility.
⋙ PHOTOS – Claudia Tagbo, Michel Cymes, Clémentine Célarié… they broke the taboo on cancer
Philippe Besson: “I wouldn’t know how to write about cancer today”
Asked about the possibility of using this ordeal as a source of inspiration for a future book, Philippe Besson replied that this was not possible at the momentbecause he didn’t feel capable of doing it. “I wouldn’t know how to write about cancer today, it takes time to look at that and above all to move away from the simple logic of the story to return to the domain of literature. For the moment, this illness is in the realm of reality. […] I’m waiting for it to become something that would make literature. One day, maybe it will happen, or maybe not, we’ll see…“, thus concluded the friend of the presidential couple.
Photo credits: CEDRIC PERRIN / BESTIMAGE