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Leïla Slimani is a French-Moroccan writer and journalist. She is also a French diplomat in her capacity as the personal representative of the French president Emmanuel Macron to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. In 2016, she was awarded the Prix Goncourt for her novel Chanson douce.
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culture · Franco-Moroccan writer (born 1981) · novelist · journalist · writer · also Leïla Slimani, Leila Slimani, Slimani
Born 3 October 1981 · Q18173445
32 published statements · 0 followers
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“a lot of anxiety, moments of depression, moments when you just want to have a break and go out of your house and be someone else, become who you were before. But it’s a kind of taboo.”
The Guardian: ‘Writing is exactly like love – you need to do it in the dark’: novelist Leila Slimani on starting a new chapter in her life
The Guardian: Leïla Slimani: ‘Salman Rushdie’s books made me feel I could become a writer’
The Guardian: The Scent of Flowers at Night by Leïla Slimani review – a writer’s lot
The Guardian: ‘It provoked an erotic shock in me’ – Marian Keyes, Nick Hornby, Leïla Slimani and other writers on the books that changed them
The Guardian: Leïla Slimani: ‘Attack on Salman Rushdie shows why we must not censor ourselves’
Awarded Knight of the National Order of Merit (2022).
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And the third, J'emporterai le feu, in January 2025
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The Guardian: The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani review – between Maroc and a hard place
The Guardian: The Country of Others by Leïla Slimani review – a compelling exploration of the past
The Guardian: Leïla Slimani: ‘I think I’m always writing about women, domination, violence’
Awarded Premi Llibreter de narrativa (2021).
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The Guardian: Leïla Slimani: ‘This book is a mirror to make the elite look reality in the face’
The Guardian: ‘Virginity is an obsession in Morocco’: an extract from Leïla Slimani’s Sex and Lies
The Guardian: Leïla Slimani and Cat Person author Kristen Roupenian – books podcast
The Guardian: Adèle by Leïla Slimani review – sex-addiction thriller
Lullaby won a British Book Award in the "Début Book of the Year" category
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As The Perfect Nanny in the US and as Lullaby in the UK
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Awarded Out d'or (2017).
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Awarded Officer of Arts and Letters (2017).
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On 6 November 2017 the president of France, Emmanuel Macron, appointed Leila Slimani his personal representative to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie.
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Was made an Officier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres by the French government
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Awarded Prix Goncourt for Chanson douce (2016).
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Was awarded the Prix Goncourt for her novel Chanson douce
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Slimani published her first novel Dans le jardin de l’ogre ("In the Garden of the Ogre" - in English translation, "Adèle") with Gallimard
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Slimani took a writing workshop by Jean-Marie Laclavetine, a novelist and editor at Gallimard
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And she was arrested in Tunisia while reporting on the Arab Spring, she decided to quit her job at Jeune Afrique to pursue freelance work and write a novel instead
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And started to work as a journalist for the magazine Jeune Afrique in October of that year
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Studied at Lycée Descartes, Baccalauréat littéraire (1999).
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When her father was falsely implicated in a finance scandal and fired from his position as president of the CIH Bank (he was later officially exonerated
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Born 1981-10-03.
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Met her future husband Lakhdar Dhobb, a Moroccan colonel in the French Colonial Army, during the liberation of France
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