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Christelle Dabos

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Christelle Dabos
Dabos in 2020
Dabos in 2020
Born1980
Cannes, Côte d'Azur, France
OccupationWriter
GenreFantasy
Years active2013–present
Notable worksThe Mirror Visitor quartet
Notable awardsGallimard-RTL-Télérama First Novel (2013)
Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire - Francophone Youth Novel (2016)
Website
christelledabos.com/international/

Christelle Dabos (born 1980) is a French author best known for The Mirror Visitor quartet, a fantasy series that has sold over a million copies at Gallimard Jeunesse and has been translated into twenty different languages. Dabos achieved success when her debut novel, A Winter's Promise, was awarded first place at the 2013 Gallimard-RTL-Télérama First Novel competition.

Life and career

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Christelle Dabos was born in 1980 in Cannes on the Côte d'Azur[1] and grew up in a family of musicians. The author moved across the border to a village near La Louvière in Wallonia,[2] Belgium,[3] in 2005 and unsuccessfully sought work as a librarian.

Dabos began writing The Mirror Visitor quartet in 2007, but shortly after she was diagnosed with cancer in her jaw and had to undergo surgery and jaw reconstruction.[4] In her convalescence, she turned to the website Plume d'argent, a repository for fanfiction and original fiction where writers could exchange feedback. After becoming an administrator on the platform, Dabos was encouraged by her fellow writers to submit her first novel, the first volume of The Mirror Visitor quartet entitled A Winter's Promise, to the Gallimard-RTL-Télérama First Novel competition, which she subsequently won in 2013.[5][6][3] The novel was also named Best Book of the Year by critics and publications in the United States, including Entertainment Weekly, Bustle, Publishers Weekly, and Chicago Review of Books.[7] The Mirror Visitor quartet narrates the adventures of Ophelia, a girl with the power to read the past of objects as well as the ability to pass through mirrors. The fantastical world in which the story is set includes 21 major arks, the remains of Earth after a cataclysmic event shattered it. Each ark is presided over by an ancestral family spirit and inhabited by people with unique abilities. The story begins when Ophelia is promised in marriage to Thorn, a taciturn man from a far-away ark called the Pole.[8][9][10] The title of the series (La Passe-miroir in French) is inspired by Le Passe-muraille, a literary work by the French writer Marcel Aymé.[11]

In 2015, Dabos published at Gallimard Jeunesse the second novel in the series, The Missing of Clairdelune, which along with A Winter's Promise was awarded the Grand prix de l'Imaginaire in the category Francophone Youth Novel in 2016.[12] The third and fourth instalments of the series were released in 2017 and 2019, respectively.[13][14][15][16] The series was compared by the national press to Harry Potter by J. K. Rowling and His Dark Materials by Philip Pullman.[17] The novels were subsequently released in English translated by Hildegarde Serle at Europa Editions in 2018,[18] 2019,[19] 2020,[20] and 2022.[21] The series has sold over a million copies and has been translated in twenty languages.[22] The book cover illustrations are by Laurent Gapaillard.[7]

In 2022, Dabos published Et L'imagination prend feu as part of the Secrets d'écriture collection published by Le Robert.[23][24] In 2023, Dabos published Here, and Only Here at Gallimard Jeunesse in French and at Europa Editions in English, translated by Hildegard Serle.[25] Writing Here, and Only Here, Dabos was "strongly influenced by magic realism",[26] especially South American authors like Gabriel García Márquez, Isabel Allende and José Donoso.[26]

Here, and Only Here takes us deep inside a school considered to be THE school – a microcosm with its own rules and taboos, rights and wrongs, those at the top and the bottom of the social hierarchy, and everything is constantly changing. It’s a place where anything is possible: there is a student who can walk on the ceiling, a mysterious liquid driving people insane, and toilets that open into Hell…[26]

— Dabos in an interview with Fantasy Hive in 2023

Publications

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The Mirror Visitor quartet

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  1. A Winter's Promise, translated by Hildegarde Serle, Europa Editions, 2018 (ISBN 9781609454838)
    • Les fiancés de l'hiver, Gallimard Jeunesse, Collection Hors Série, 2013 (ISBN 9782070653768)
  2. The Missing of Clairdelune, translated by Hildegarde Serle, Europa Editions, 2019 (ISBN 9781609455071)
    • Les disparus du Clairdelune, Gallimard Jeunesse, Collection Romans Ado, 2015 (ISBN 9782070661985)
  3. The Memory of Babel, translated by Hildegarde Serle, Europa Editions, 2020 (ISBN 9781609456139)
    • La mémoire de Babel, Gallimard Jeunesse, Collection Hors Série, 2017 (ISBN 9782075081894)
  4. The Storm of Echoes, translated by Hildegarde Serle, Europa Editions, 2021
    • La Tempête des échos, Gallimard Jeunesse, Collection Romans Ado, 2019 (ISBN 9782075093866)

Standalone novels

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References

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  1. ^ "Christelle Dabos répond aux questions du club de lecture du HuffPost". Le HuffPost (in French). 24 December 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  2. ^ "Christelle Dabos, de la fanfiction au phénomène littéraire". Le Monde.fr (in French). 29 November 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  3. ^ a b "Par ici les sortilèges Rencontre avec Christelle Dabos". Libération.fr (in French). Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  4. ^ "Christelle Dabos, de la fanfiction au phénomène littéraire". Le Monde.fr (in French). 29 November 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  5. ^ "Christelle Dabos, de la fanfiction au phénomène littéraire". Le Monde.fr (in French). 29 November 2019. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  6. ^ "Christelle Dabos, lauréate du prix du premier roman jeunesse Gallimard-RTL-Télérama". Télérama.fr (in French). Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  7. ^ a b Shukla, Nils (24 October 2023). "Interview with Christelle Dabos (HERE, AND ONLY HERE)". Fantasy-Hive. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  8. ^ Roussel, Frédérique. "Par ici les sortilèges Rencontre avec Christelle Dabos". Libération (in French). Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  9. ^ "A Winter's Promise Book One of The Mirror Visitor Quartet - Christelle Dabos". Europa Editions. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  10. ^ "The Mirror Visitor Series by Christelle Dabos". Beguiled By Books. 31 May 2022. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  11. ^ ""La passe-miroir" de Christelle Dabos, lauréat du premier roman jeunesse". RTL.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 28 April 2018. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  12. ^ "Grand Prix de l'Imaginaire 2016 – Alter1fo". Alter1fo (in French). 11 May 2016. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  13. ^ "La Passe-miroir – Romans Ado – Grand format littérature – Livres pour enfants et éditeur de littérature jeunesse – Gallimard Jeunesse". www.gallimard-jeunesse.fr (in French). Archived from the original on 27 October 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  14. ^ "Quatre raisons de découvrir La Passe-Miroir, une fascinante saga fantastique". madmoiZelle.com (in French). 1 June 2017. Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  15. ^ "Romans La Passe-miroir, tome 4, Grand format littérature | Gallimard Jeunesse". www.gallimard-jeunesse.fr. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  16. ^ Dabos, Auteur Christelle. "Parutions". La Passe-miroir (in French). Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  17. ^ "" La Passe-miroir ", le succès transgénérationnel de Christelle Dabos". Le Monde.fr (in French). Retrieved 27 April 2018.
  18. ^ "A Winter's Promise Book One of The Mirror Visitor Quartet". Europa Editions. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  19. ^ "The Missing of Clairdelune". Europa Editions. Retrieved 18 June 2019.
  20. ^ "The Memory of Babel". Europa Editions. Retrieved 12 March 2020.
  21. ^ "The Storm of Echoes Book Four of the Mirror Visitor Quartet - Christelle Dabos". Europa Editions. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  22. ^ littéraire, Gladys Marivat pour Lire Magazine (28 April 2023). "PORTRAIT. Christelle Dabos : « Terminer l'histoire de La Passe-miroir c'était comme mourir »". Ouest-France.fr (in French). Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  23. ^ Dabos, Christelle (27 October 2022). Et l'imagination prend feu - Les secrets d'écriture de Christelle Dabos (in French). Le Robert.
  24. ^ Et l'imagination prend feu - Christelle Dabos - Le Robert - Grand format - Librairie Gallimard PARIS (in French).
  25. ^ "Here, and Only Here - Christelle Dabos". Europa Editions. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
  26. ^ a b c Shukla, Nils (24 October 2023). "Interview with Christelle Dabos (HERE, AND ONLY HERE)". Fantasy-Hive. Retrieved 31 May 2024.
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