Daniel Pennac

One of France’s most internationally prestigious novelists, Daniel Pennac spent his childhood in several countries of Africa and Southeast Asia. After graduating from university, he began to work teaching language and literature, an experience which prompted him to write School Blues (Quercus Publishing, 2011). Winner of the Renaudot Prize, this essay addresses his twofold experience as a teacher and as a child who failed, whose adolescence was marked by suffering at school. He also explores the education system, the role of teachers, and books in children’s learning. Moreover, Pennac is author of Reads Like a Novel (Quartet Books, 1994) which aims to encourage adolescents to take an interest in reading. In 1993 he received the Blue Metropolis International Literary Grand Prize for his work as a whole, in which outstanding books include the Malaussène (or Belleville) saga and Diary of a Body (MacLehose Press, 2016). In May 2018, one of the books of the Belleville series is to be published in Catalan as El cas Malaussène 1. Em van mentir (Empúries) and in Spanish as El caso Malaussène 1. Me mintieron (Literatura Random House).