Il a quitté la ville une nuit d’hiver pour rejoindre, au bord de la rivière, son territoire originel. C’est là que la machine à remonter le temps s’est mise en route et qu’il a retrouvé, intact, l’enfant qu’il fut. Neverland est un livre où les sauterelles ont la taille des géants et les fées se cachent dans les rideaux. Timothée de Fombelle trouve ici le passage secret vers le pays de l’enfance, celui que nous portons tous en nous. « Je me souviens de ce besoin qui m’a envahi un jour d’attraper l’enfance pour la tenir, comme dans une cage entre mes mains fermées, et la montrer aux autres en écartant doucement les doigts. - Regarde, elle est là. Tu la vois ? C’est arrivé au milieu de ma vie. Autant d’années à vivre, peut-être, que de temps vécu. J’avais senti l’absence de l’enfance dans tout ce qui commandait la marche du monde à ce moment-là. Et ce monde ressemblait à une steppe, une plaine asséchée, fendue de colonnes de guerriers. Aucune trace de l’enfance nulle part. La terre craquait tout autour. »
Author
As a child... Timothee de Fombelle was born in the heart of Paris in 1973, but often accompanied his architect father on his travels to Africa. Each summer his family left for the countryside (the west of France), where the five brothers and sisters lived like wild horses, making huts in the trees, playing in the river and losing themselves in the woods. In the evening they performed plays for their parents and devoured the books in the library. Childhood remains for him the lost paradise which he re-discovers through writing. As an adult... After becoming a literature teacher, Timothee taught in Paris and Vietnam before choosing the bohemian life of the theatre. Author of a dozen plays, he writes, designs, builds sets and directs the actress he admires the most, his wife Laetitia. They have a young daughter, Jeanne Elisha, who already loves climbing trees. Toby Alone is his first novel and has already been translated into 22 languages. As an artist... Passionate about books and theatre, Timothee has been writing since he was young. The stage has been his testing ground but it is life, with its joys and trials, which inspires his real work. A great traveller, Timothee recognises that the writing of Toby Alone has been his best journey so far.
