Biography

Born in 1973, Sophie Van der Linden published books on youth literature in which she specializes.

“I was not at the end of my pain because I know that it is endless. However, I must keep my pride. Then, I pushed back my anger at the bottom of my belly; I crushed it, until making it a small package of nothing. And I left it there, by swearing to myself never to forget it. And to return to seek it if it were needed.”

“Mei, 17 years, works at the factory to pay the studies of her brother. Man’s shirt. White. To dispatch in four days. 900 pieces. The Chinese young woman imagines the European who will carry what she assembles. And what if she put a word in the pocket? Do these men think of the young dressmakers who wore the fingers and the eyes on their clothing? Mei feels different. She dreams. One day, she dares to look in the eyes of the foreman who presses her to accelerate. She is forbidden of her four annual days of rest for the New Year. The holidays arrive; here she is only in the factory. However, not completely. The new foreman, a hard and dark young man, remained too. Following a splendid closed sessions. There is in this short novel, a freshness, a tearing sensitivity. The small Mei Chinese is from the line of Phèdre and Bérénice. ”

(Le Figaro Littéraire, September 13rd, 2013)