by Stefano Montefiori
Tiphaine Auzière’s story on the occasion of the presentation of her new novel: «A small provincial town where everything is known, but despite the attacks they remained standing»
FROM OUR CORRESPONDENT
PARIS – For 10 years the lawyer Tiphaine Auzière has been thinking about writing a book inspired by the beginnings of her career, which began as a public defender in Boulogne sur Mer, in the north of France. When she made up her mind, she published the novel Assises (Stock publishing house) without a pseudonym, with her real name, which is that of the daughter of Brigitte Macron, première dame of France, and with the photo of her in the toga on the cover.
«The name will trigger interest and revulsion. Some will love or loathe the book just because they are “daughter of”. But I told myself that at a certain point we have to be courageous: never mind if they criticize me, I won’t hide and I’ll publish it like this”, said the author, guest yesterday on the radio show of Léa Salamé, one of the most famous journalists in France.
For now the comments are positive, Tiphaine Auzière reveals herself to be a talented writer capable of using her experience to effectively portray the character of Diane, a lawyer who defends women victims of incest, abuse and violence. Among Diane’s clients there is also a woman who rebels and kills her executioner, a story that recalls the real life of Jacqueline Sauvage, sentenced to 10 years and then pardoned in 2016 by the then president François Hollande.
But Assises is also an opportunity to talk about the author and her unusual family, because it is that of the President of the Republic and because her mother Brigitte was a 39-year-old married with three children when she began her relationship with the theater student Emmanuel , then 15 years old.
On the day of her parents’ separation, in 1994, Tiphaine was 10 years old and was a classmate of Emmanuel, now 17 years old, at the Jesuit secondary school La Providence in Amiens, a small city north of Paris. She was a tiphaine, she called Emmanuel Ovni, Ufo, and over the years she built a relationship of affection and admiration for that almost peer who then advised her in her studies and profession. When Tiphaine Auzière was sworn in as a lawyer in 2009, Emmanuel Macron was present in the court room of Douai next to André-Louis Auzière, Tiphaine’s beloved father who passed away in 2019 at the age of 68.
«A separation is painful, and when there is a particularity it is even more painful», says Tiphaine Auzière, who remembers «the attacks, the slander, the criticism. It wasn’t yet the age of social media, but we were in a small provincial town where everything is known. Despite this, they remained standing. A recomposed family can be an opportunity, a form of openness. Blood ties remain, and others are created.”
Tiphaine Auzière then says she is “concerned about the state of society” when she reads conspiracy theories on social media about “my mother being a man. Anyone can say any nonsense, but then it takes time to remove it from the network.”
Emmanuel Macron hasn’t read the novel yet, “I brought it to him in person yesterday because I wanted him to have the definitive version, we’ll talk about it soon.” Her mother Brigitte, a French teacher, gave her “her best compliment”: “She told me that she regrets not having realized my vocation and my talent sooner.”
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March 7, 2024 (modified March 7, 2024 | 8:27 pm)
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