Jakuta Alikavazovic says that she has always been preoccupied with languages: Serbo-Croat, learned from her Montenegrin father and her Bosnian poet mother, French, whose tones and rare terms she loves, and English, which fascinates her and to which she has dedicated all her university studies. “I love the plasticity of English, the way it is energised by new words invented each day,” she says, full of enthusiasm. An only child, she claims to have had a strong affinity for fiction since her solitary childhood, learning to read in order to write better. She is an outstanding student, and for a while hesitated between the hard sciences and architecture, but in the end decided to enrich her general knowledge and her taste for literature by sitting the agrégation (competitive exam needed in order to become a university lecturer) in English. But she didn’t stop at studying: Jakuta took a two-year sabbatical from the Ecole Normale Supérieure.  One year was spent in Scotland as a language assistant at a university, the other travelling. In Glasgow, which she had chosen for its romantic character, she found a dynamic city with a rich and varied architecture. She then travelled around Europe as far as Istanbul, always by train so as to be in control of time and distance. Each time she returns to France, she continues her studies – currently a PhD in English, on American art – and writes a book. Two works for young people, with complex narrative and style, have opened the way to adult literature for Jakuta. She has published two demanding novels, Histoires contre nature and Corps volatils. Her third book, L’effet Meissner, whose tone is much lighter, promises to finally tie in her passion for words with her passion for architecture. This is a first for Jakuta, who doesn’t assert any link between her studies, teaching and her books. “Even if I’d been an architect, I’d still have written”, she says. And travelled, to India, a country which has made a strong impression on her and where she would like to go and live.

Age: 28 I Passions: The American film noirs of the 40s and 50s, modern and contemporary art, architecture and the English language I Philosophy in life: She doesn’t have one.  I Goals: To do my best I Favourite writers: Gustave Flaubert, Jules Barbey d’Aurevilly, James Graham Ballard and Kurt Wonnegut.