Colette Fellous's Near-Death Experience Triggers Memoir of Brother and Lost Tunisia
In her memoir "Un Amour de frère," Colette Fellous recounts a near-fatal accident in Tunisia that reawakens memories of her childhood and her brother Georgy. While crossing a railway track in August, her sandal gets caught in a rail; she falls and barely escapes an oncoming train. This ten-second brush with death becomes the catalyst for a narrative that interweaves her past in Tunisia—a land of nostalgia and euphoria—with her arrival in Paris at eighteen to join her diabetic brother, who died at twenty-seven. Fellous evokes the sensory richness of Tunisian life and the literary ghosts of Paris, from Hemingway to Proust. The book explores the intense, ambiguous bond with Georgy, hinting at a pact involving prostitution, while maintaining a veil of mystery. Published by Gallimard, the work is a meditation on time, memory, and resurrection through writing.
Key facts
- Colette Fellous's memoir 'Un Amour de frère' is published by Gallimard.
- The narrative begins with a near-fatal accident in Tunisia: Fellous's sandal gets caught in a railway track as a train approaches.
- The accident occurs in August, around noon, while Fellous is looking for a carpenter to repair a puzzle for a girl named Alice.
- Fellous was born in Tunisia and spent part of her childhood there; she has returned multiple times in pilgrimage.
- Her brother Georgy, a diabetic, died at age 27; he was homosexual and she describes him as both angelic and demonic.
- In Paris, Fellous frequented literary haunts associated with Hemingway, Lautréamont, Mallarmé, Rousseau, Adamov, Diderot, Barthes, Beckett, Artaud, Baudelaire, Rimbaud, Proust, Breton, and Debord.
- Fellous writes that her brother wanted her to pick up boys for him, leading to a 'pact with prostitution.'
- A man tells Fellous after her accident that many have died crossing that railway track.
Entities
Artists
- Colette Fellous
- Georgy Fellous
- Ernest Hemingway
- Lautréamont
- Stéphane Mallarmé
- Jean-Jacques Rousseau
- Arthur Adamov
- Denis Diderot
- Roland Barthes
- Samuel Beckett
- Antonin Artaud
- Charles Baudelaire
- Arthur Rimbaud
- Marcel Proust
- André Breton
- Guy Debord
Institutions
- Éditions Gallimard
Locations
- Tunisia
- Paris
- France
Sources
- artpress —