On October 30, 2024, Maxime Chattam released his new work entitled Prime Time. A novel less dark than those which made it known. Asked by Leisure TVhe revealed how his wife had been “a real help” for this book.
Maxime Chattam’s fear regarding Faustine Bollaert
No serial killer in Prime Timeas may have been the case in his Trilogy of Evil For example. This time, Maxime Chattam wanted to immerse his readers in the heart of a hostage situation in the middle of the television news. A theme on which he prohibited himself from writing for a long time, for the good of Faustine Bollaert. “I’ve wanted to do a book that takes place in the world of TV for a very long time, eIt’s been a very long time since I forbade myself to do so for a very simple reason: it’s because I was afraid for a long time that through my words and what I was going to say, people would judge my wife. I really didn’t want us to go in that direction. If one day she has something to say on TV, she’s big and she’ll do it herself. She doesn’t need me. I didn’t dare for fear that people would say to themselves: “But isn’t it Faustine who thinks that, who says that at home?” and then at one point, I said to myself that after thirteen years, it was time to get started“, he confided to our colleagues.
However, he took care to distance himself from his wife’s world. Originally, he wanted to tell the story of the life of a presenter because he sees on a daily basis the workload that the France Télévisions presenter puts through, but also what she takes in by listening to the testimonies of her guests from It starts today notably. “I wanted to tell this story and at one point, I said to myself: ‘Be careful, if you do this, you are going to make a declaration of love and admiration to your wife, but you are not going to write the book that you plan to write.’ So I went back and that’s why I went with this idea from JT which fit much better with what I wanted to do. So I took on a journalist who presents a news story and that allowed me to go in a direction that seemed more relevant to me for the book.“, the 48-year-old continued.
The France Télévisions presenter was a valuable help
As with each of his books, Maxime Chattam has completely immersed himself in the universe he talks about to stick as closely as possible to reality. Thus, he had the opportunity to go to the news sets of TF1 and France 2. He also had the opportunity to see how things were done in the editorial offices. Furthermore, it has been thirteen years since he “hear about TV” or that he goes on set with his wife. So he already mastered the subject very well. Obviously, his mother brought much more to his daily life. She, for example, allowed him to “no longer live only through [ses] livres“. “I have spent more than forty years living through fiction, through what I write, to protect myself somewhere, because in my books, I have control of my emotions. And Faustine who is a woman of emotions, who is anchored in reality and who is the complete opposite of me, little by little, she taught me to anchor myself more in reality, to accept not having control, to feel. It takes time but I think that in recent months, in recent years, I made an important leap in my life and I wouldn’t have done it if she wasn’t by my side, if she wasn’t guiding me“, he admitted.
As soon as he can, Maxime Chattam wants to show him all his admiration. “This book wouldn’t exist if she wasn’t in my life, that’s for sure and, beyond that, I wouldn’t be the man I am today at 48 if she wasn’t. was not in my life. She made me better, I’m aware of it, and it’s the least I can say“, he concluded. A beautiful and touching declaration of love.
