Mazan: A typical Provençal village, or not?
Because Mazan is the setting for my memoir-novel X in Provence, I often get asked whether there is something about this village and the area around it is that spawns evil. […]
My true-life exposé of Mazan
The bizarre coincidence that my novel X in Provence takes place in Mazan in southern France – the same village where Gisèle Pelicot was repeatedly raped – still rubs me […]
Ditching shame: The Gisèle Pelicot effect
Sexual shame looms large in my novel, X in Provence, set by sheer if harrowing happenstance in Mazan, a village now sadly synonymous with rape. Rai, an ambitious journalist, moves […]
Self-esteem: Never Ever Enough
“Love yourself,” my parents used to say to me, “believe in yourself and you can do anything”. A truism worthy of a pedestal deserving of a dais. I grew up recognizing the divinity of these words. And yet… how do you manufacture confidence when you don’t have a stock of it, due to whatever reasons, and there are a multitude.