Hugo Paviot is a French writer, playwright, director, poet and translator. After studying literature

at the Sorbonne, he devoted himself entirely to writing, exploring with finesse the complexities of human relationships and the inner torments of his characters. His first novel, "Les Oiseaux rares" (Seuil, 2020), was hailed by the critics and received several awards, including the prize at the Festival du premier roman de Chambéry 2021. It was also shortlisted for the Prix Nice Baie des Anges, for the Coup de coeur des lectrices de Version Femina and for the Coup de Coeur des lycéens de Sceaux.

The recipient of numerous grants and writing residencies (Centre national du livre, Île-de-France region, Montpellier Méditerranée Métropole, Yonne département, cities of Angers and Le Mans, Clermont-Auvergne Métropole, ALCA Nouvelle-Aquitaine), Hugo Paviot is pursuing a rich and varied artistic career. 

By 2022, he had published and performed around ten plays, some of which have won awards.

In 2014 published a bilingual collection of his work entitled ‘L'Éclat du samouraï’, published in Peru by Amotape Libros.

He is also a recognised translator of contemporary Spanish playwrights and novelists, and in 2009 won the Prix littéraire des jeunes européens for his translation of the novel "Les Princes nubiens" by Juan Bonilla (Galaade éditions).

Quick introduction

When memories resurface with unexpected force, even the most solid of indifferences shatters under the weight of the past.

Summary 

Benjamin Laisné, an established successful writer, arrives in Belledone to confront a past he thought he'd buried under his icy indifference. His brother Maxime, with whom he had had no contact for years, died on this unusual, timeless peninsula, where refugees, disabled people and social workers live side by side.

In the midst of striking landscapes, solitude and strange encounters, Benjamin finds himself confronted by his own demons: buried sibling rivalries, regrets that have never been expressed and the brutal realisation of an inner emptiness. Little by little, the line between reality and introspection becomes increasingly porous.

La Hache de Guerre explores with finesse the complexity of family ties and the difficulty of coming to terms with one's past in order to live fully in the present. Unless cynicism wins out in the end.

Press & medias :

“The unburied hatchet’ confirms his place as a key figure in contemporary French literature, confirming his talent for plumbing the depths of the human soul.”

“This book is different in that the main character here is a negative one, the figure of the bastard you might say. Hugo usually chooses characters who move towards the light. In "the unburied hatchet", Benjamin turns off all the lightsone by one and plunges into the darkness. And it's all the secondary characters he meets (refugees, social workers) who seem to open emotional doors for Benjamin.  Each encounter is like a chapter in his odyssey. It's up to whether or not he listens to the oracles to find his way back to himself.”