Orban, Christine

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ORBAN, Christine

(Christine Duhon, Christine Rheims)

PERSONAL:

Born in Casablanca, Morocco; married Olivier Orban (an author and publisher); children: two sons.

ADDRESSES:

Agent—c/o Author Mail, Random House, 1745 Broadway, New York, NY 10019.

CAREER:

Author.

WRITINGS:

NOVELS

(As Christine Rheims) Les petites filles ne meurent jamais, J. C. Lattès (Paris, France) 1986.

(As Christine Rheims) Le fil de soi, Olivier Orban (Paris, France), 1988.

(As Christine Duhon) Une année amoureuse de Virginia Woolf, Olivier Orban (Paris, France), 1990.

La femme adultère, Flammarion (Paris, France), 1992.

Le collectionneur (title means "The Collector"), Albin Michel (Paris, France), 1993.

(With Olivier Orban) Une folie amoureuse (title means "A Madness in Love"), B. Grasset (Paris, France), 1997.

L'attente (title means "The Expectation"), Albin Michel (Paris, France), 1999.

J'étais l'origine de monde, Albin Michel (Paris, France), 2000.

Fringues, Albin Michel (Paris, France), 2002.

Le silence des hommes (title means "The Silence of Men"), Albin Michel (Paris, France), 2003.

MEMOIR

L'âme soeur, Albin Michel (Paris, France), 1998,translated by Gwen Bolkonsky as One Day My Sister Disappeared, Random House (New York, NY), 2004.

SIDELIGHTS:

Novelist Christine Orban was born and raised in Casablanca, Morocco. She eventually moved to Paris to pursue her education, and there she met and married publisher Olivier Orban, with whom she has two sons. Orban is the author of more than a dozen bestselling French novels.

One Day My Sister Disappeared, Orban's first book to be released in English, tells a very different story. In it, Orban recounts the abrupt loss of her sister, Maco, who died of a brain aneurysm only minutes after she and Orban had spoken on the phone. Unlike Orban, Maco had remained in Morocco, where she had fallen for and married a Muslim man. Born Catholic, Maco was unprepared for her new husband's strict religious beliefs. Orban, considered a liberated woman, was no longer allowed to visit with her sister unchaperoned. Maco remained happy enough in her marriage until she discovered her husband was having an affair. She divorced him, only to have him refuse her access to her children. It was shortly after he informed her she could not take the children for a brief holiday that Maco suffered the aneurysm. Orban believes the shock of the news brought on her death.

In an interview with Women's Wear Daily contributor Robert Murphy, Orban said of her reasons for writing the book, "I wanted to keep my sister alive, to give her life once again." She added: "I wanted to show the problems a Western woman has marrying a Muslim. It's not even a critique. That wasn't my intent. But if you want to marry a Muslim you have to be ready.… love isn't strong enough to erase centuries of beliefs and traditions." Lucille M. Boone, reviewing for Library Journal, wrote, "the author's poignant outpouring of grief and her descriptions of life in Morocco make this short memoir unforgettable," and a contributor to Kirkus Reviews called Orban's work "grief perfectly pitched."

Orban told CA: "I first became interested in writing when I realized that life can parallel writings. Life is not enough; I need to dream. I want to be able to transform the sufferings of life into something positive and be able to understand them too. Although I admire Virginia Woolf and Carson MacCuller, I do not believe that anyone influences my work.

"My writing process involves writing every day, usually early in the morning. I give myself a two-hour break in the afternoon. That is the secret to my writing. There is no obligation to write, rather, a vital need.

"Each of my books are a piece of me: my sufferings, my misunderstandings, my interrogations. If I had to choose my favorite book I've written, it would be The Silence of Men."