'It was as if I had ended up in my book.' How Tatiana de Rosnay's dystopian new novel suddenly became suspiciously similar to reality

It is scorching hot in Paris on the day of the interview with Tatiana de Rosnay (58). In her new novel Flowers of darkness Paris is weighed down by yet another heatwave, with the thermometer hitting 48 degrees. 'The past few days have been almost as bad as in my book,' De Rosnay tells via Zoom from her Paris office. 'Like my protagonist Clarissa, I live on the top floor, and it gets very hot there. At one point it was 42 degrees.'

Attacks

It was not the only bizarre parallel between the book and reality. The dystopian novel, about writer Clarissa who moves into a floor in an apartment building for artists after a divorce from her husband, is set in a near but recognisable future. Attacks have destroyed the Eiffel Tower in Paris, London's Big Ben, the Sistine Chapel in Rome and St Mark's Square in Venice, and Europe is burdened by climate change, resulting in ever worse heat waves. Bees, trees and flowers are almost non-existent. Society is dominated by technology - even sex and love relationships are being taken over by robots. But that is not the only thing that worries Clarissa; in her flat, she is being watched day and night by cameras. Her physical and mental health is not only constantly monitored but also - she thinks - negatively affected. As a result, old grief over the loss of her infant son also flares up again. Clarissa begins to feel increasingly unsafe, especially when one of her fellow residents suddenly disappears out of the blue.

Corona-lockdown

De Rosnays book had only been in shops for two days when the corona-lockdown turned Paris into a ghost town. 'It was almost as if I had entered my book: empty streets and drones flying around and ordering people to go home. All those images I had imagined a year earlier while writing this book were now taking place before my eyes, in real life. Like Clarissa, I was a writer locked in her flat, because we were only allowed out for one hour a day.'

How ironic that your book is among other things about the negatives of digitisation, while you are now forced to do all promotion digitally.

'It is indeed very ironic to have to rely so heavily on technology - computers, phones - when my book is critical of it and my heroine is so afraid of it. I could never have come up with that. My whole tour was cancelled, but I did all kinds of interviews via video calls and other social media, and TV shows via Skype and Zoom. A bizarre experience.'

Bleak future

This novel paints a rather bleak picture of the future. Are you anxious about that?

'I think this book is about what scares almost all of us: terrorist attacks, climate change, the fact that artificial intelligence and robots are increasingly determining and taking over our lives... Although the ending of the story is light and hopeful, the atmosphere is indeed perhaps a bit darker than in some of my other books. When you write about the past, as I did in Her name was Sarah, concerns something that has already happened and that you can relate to, or even heal from. The future is still uncertain, and for that reason more frightening. We have no control over it and do not know what awaits us and our loved ones, except that we will die.

The story takes place about 15 years from now, which means tomorrow, even almost today. Drones, robots, virtual assistance, pollution and the extinction of bees - I haven't made up anything that doesn't already exist. At the same time, it is a very intimate book, about marriage and a woman's sexuality, about motherhood and creativity and how technology is taking over every area. That's why I wanted my main character, Clarissa, to be a very believable, real person with whom the reader could connect. The title Flowers of darkness refers to how Virginia Woolf described paranoia: the little buds of fear that blossom in our minds. Everything always gets worse, especially in our minds. In return, we need hope and some form of faith and trust. As Clarissa's father does, who remains positive and optimistic in all circumstances.'

Main characters by age

He is 99, Clarissa 73 - not a usual age for the average protagonist of a novel.

'I am very proud that my heroine is an older woman. Nobody likes getting old, but at the same time, we as human beings are getting older and older. The strange thing is that if more and more people are getting into their nineties, we still have a whole life to go after the age of 60 - so how are we old from the age of 60? Perhaps it is time to start thinking differently about that. Clarissa's daughter is in her forties, her granddaughter is a teenager. All generations play a role in the book. I think the pandemic has recently made us realise how much our older generations are worth to us, and that we need to protect them. When I saw a video on the internet where people with plastic coats could hug their elderly parents, I had to cry. I still haven't been able to hug my parents, both in their 80s, and I miss that so much.'

Twin Towers

In your near future, cultural landmarks such as the Eiffel Tower have been destroyed. How did the Paris attacks affect you?

'Those attacks were terrible; friends of mine lost loved ones. But more than the recent Paris attacks, the iconic image the attacks on the Twin Towers played through my mind. The plane crashing into the tower, the towers then collapsing... That is etched in the memory of me and many other people. So are the images of the Taliban blowing up those beautiful, ancient Buddhas in Afghanistan - it made me sick when I saw it. From the window in my study, I see the Eiffel Tower and I pray that it will never disappear. As human beings, we are connected to spaces; to our home, but also to other buildings. Destroying cultural symbols, buildings we grew up with and love, is a destruction of identity. This is shocking and profound, even if it doesn't happen in your own country. I was still hesitating whether to choose Notre-Dame or the Eiffel Tower, but then Notre-Dame was hit by fire. All those images of the burning church... I couldn't bear to look at it.'

The power of culture

Our culture, our imagination and the ability to create something that did not yet exist is the only thing that distinguishes humans from robots, you write. What can literature do in a time like this?

'What did we all resort to when we were trapped because of corona? Music, films, books. I listened to David Bowie a lot, and read Patti Smith's new book and one about Giuseppe Verdi and his opera La traviata. I think artists should have a vital role in our future. Because it is the human imagination, our imagination, that keeps us from becoming machines. Robots cannot generate emotions, which is what books, films, visual art and music do. The value of art lies in that it allows different and unfamiliar voices to be heard, expresses everything we doubt, puts you in touch with new or surprising ways of thinking, or perhaps shocks you. But for that, the one who creates must have the courage to dare to deviate from the masses, and that is vulnerable. In today's world, the great danger is that everything becomes mainstream or that we become so lazy that we even outsource our creative power to devices.'