Céline Lapertot teaches French in Strasbourg. She has been writing since she was nine years old. Through her three novels, What my Silence Wrote, The Women who Dance under Bombs and Don’t Choose Blood over Water, unanimously applauded by readers, the media, such as Le Monde des livres, L’Express and Télérama, and booksellers alike, she entered the literary scene as a promising, talented writer of French contemporary literature.

In What is Monstrous is Normal, her autobiographical account, she establishes a link between her past self (a child who smiled constantly to hide her distress and who would discover all too early that all mothers and fathers are not like other people’s, full of love and goodwill) and the woman she is today. Through short chapters, she offers an intimate and unsentimental text, bringing the reader near to discover, up close and personal, a unique journey.

“Céline Lapertot excels in the art of working on her reader […]. Her prowess consists of driving forward the narrative, not with action but with feelings, values, and emotional states that are endlessly kneaded together, merged and intertwined”. Estelle Lenartowicz, Lire