Sunday's interview with Cloé Korman. "Childbirth is a moment of major upheaval."

Where does this broad novel about motherhood come from, and why did you choose the title Bringing into the World rather than Being Born into the World ?

""Being born into the world" escapes memory. Perhaps there are buried traces of it, but there is neither memory nor true awareness of that moment. "Bringing into the world" refers to maternal consciousness. I experienced childbirth with extreme intensity, and I felt the need to return to it through writing, to understand it, to relive it, to rediscover the emotion of this overwhelming experience."

How extreme was your personal experience of childbirth , and how difficult is it to write about it accurately in a fictional novel?

“It was beyond anything I had ever known, in physical sensations: both joy and pain, both mastery and abandonment. How can I write about those hours spent, of which I have such vivid memories? The intensity of childbirth defies language. Both in its shattering effect, and also because of a relative absence of previous accounts, so that words fail.”

Jill, the midwife, is one of the central figures in the book. Is she inspired by real encounters?

“The midwives who accompanied me during my deliveries had a profound impact on me. One of them became one of the witnesses who helped me write this book. I met other midwives so they could talk to me about their work. Each has a unique perspective. Their profession has evolved a lot: today, they not only provide birth support, but also prescribe contraception and medical abortions.”

What did this immersion in the work of midwives bring you?

"It really shook me. I left wondering how I could live up to these women who master very technical techniques, possess immense knowledge, but don't forget that childbirth is a moment of major upheaval. They master the technique without ever losing sight of the emotional, existential stakes."

How did you experience the world of motherhood, this almost exclusively feminine space, both highly technical and deeply focused on life?

"We feel like we're being welcomed into a circle of women who are both great technicians and decision-makers. Most of the caregivers present are women: nurses, midwives, and often also gynecologists or anesthesiologists. I have the image of a sort of " war room ," but dedicated to life, to everything that happens, including the invisible, during these hours of childbirth."

Is each birth marked by its unique, irreducible and unpredictable character?

"You might think that with medical technology, childbirth has become almost ordinary. In reality, it's a constant management of danger. Each time, life and death are at stake, but also pain, the risk of infirmity or disability. When I talk about a " war room ," it's because these women face immense challenges. They all spoke to me about death, which is part of their daily lives, and the emotional difficulty it represents."

In the book, you address the issue of choosing to have a child. How does this choice seem decisive to you today?

"It's a crucial question for contemporary women. A motherhood that is no longer experienced as an inevitability , but as a desire. It's a characteristic of this generation after the Veil law, at least in France. However, children don't arrive according to a rational equation, like a simple chain of decisions. There is always an element of uncertainty."

You pay tribute to the generation that led the fight for women's rights in the 1970s. Why was it important for you to include this memory in the book?

“I wanted to salute this generation that carried the fight, and show, through the character of Jeanne – Jill’s mother – the forms of transmission between women, a transmission that goes beyond mere biological life. I had the chance to meet several historians, activists, and writers who were at the heart of the struggles in the 1970s. I wanted to give them a literary embodiment, and also to collect their testimony before they disappeared. Because they represent a living memory of the struggle, of activism. They are not vestiges: they continue to be fully present in our world today.”

Which encounters have particularly marked you?

“The gynecologist Francine Morat-Vuong, whom I first knew in my personal life. Michelle Perrot, who helped me better understand the link between university and activism. Monique Wittig’s political writings also greatly enriched me, particularly concerning the clash between heterosexual feminism and another, queer, emancipated from men. She said that it is because choice is institutionalized that non-choice can also become a positive form. Finally, Liliane Kandel, who edited the journal Les Temps Modernes alongside Claude Lanzmann, gave me a testimony of great vitality, imbued with the joy of struggle that she still embodies today.”

The "guaranteed freedom" to have an abortion has been part of the Constitution since 2024. How did this political context influence your novel?

“At the time I was writing, current events were resonating strongly: the inclusion of the right to abortion in the Constitution, but also political discourse on “demographic rearmament,” a form of almost unimaginable natalism. I like a novel to be both a symbolic space and a material traversed by the imprint of reality. Here, it was particularly powerful, because I chose to write in the present tense, to assume this immediacy, including its improvisational and unpredictable aspects. This political moment brought up echoes that exceeded my expectations, but that was precisely what I was looking for: to inscribe birth in the flux of the world as it is.”

What is your view on the "rebirth" of feminism?

"I feel like there's a feminist awakening after a period where we heard an anesthetizing discourse: 'You've won the right to vote , contraception, abortion, what more could you ask for?' But the reality is persistent inequalities : wages, domestic violence, the narrative of female desire still lagging behind. And the hypocrisy of saying there's no regression adds to the anger. It's from this anger that the new feminist wave is born, against injustice coupled with lies. I find it very joyful to be living in this moment, to wake up collectively and say: 'No, we haven't arrived yet .'"

Do you think the #MeToo movement is a continuation of the struggle for women's freedom to control their bodies?

"It's obvious: #MeToo is a continuation of this story. It's a question of freedom, but also a way of demanding accountability in the face of the unfortunately persistent regression of women's rights."

Your book reads like a form of commitment, about women's freedom, their right to control their bodies, and to choose whether or not to become a mother. Do you consider yourself an activist through your writing?

"When I'm an activist, I am fully so. In my books, it's more about proposing a way of thinking about the representations of women today, with their doubts, their thoughts, their contradictions. Of tying threads into the fabric of life."

Isn't writing a form of commitment after all?

“Yes, but of a different nature. The challenge of this book was to find a language to talk about motherhood, birth, childhood: subjects too often downplayed, reduced to the “cute.” We had to avoid falling into a fixed discourse, including an activist one. Literature allows this: finding other words to talk about these existential experiences, without reducing them to sociology or stigma.”