Corinne Desarzens turns motherhood, twins and loss into one of her finest books
In "Trois", the Vaudois writer and winner of the 2026 Grand Prix suisse de littérature writes of her three children and her twin brothers, gone, in a style that resists all formatting, according to Le Temps.
The book opens with a moth, the Grand Paon de Nuit, and the long secret gestation inside its chrysalis, before moving into the subject at its heart: filiation. According to Le Temps, Corinne Desarzens builds "Trois" out of short chapters and anecdotes that swing between funny, absurd, poignant and abrupt, tracing her own three children alongside her brothers and parents.
Le Temps singles out the chapter titled "La lettre" as among the finest pages Desarzens has written. In it she reproduces a message she received from her mother in 1986, while she was pregnant with twins, urging her to reconsider keeping them. The newspaper describes the letter's mixture of contempt and condescension as so extreme it tips into comedy.
Voici mes remarques. Comme je te l'ai dit: On est toujours seul. A toi donc de mener ta vie comme bon te semble et de prendre les décisions que tu jugeras opportunes. Par expérience, je tiens toutefois à te dire que, si c'était à refaire, je ne mettrais aucun être au monde.
the mother's letter, quoted by Le Temps
Desarzens, who won the Grand Prix suisse de littérature in 2026, is due to appear this Friday at the Livre sur les quais festival.
Sources
This article was written from these reports.
