An extract from There's a Monster Behind the Door by Gaëlle Bélem, translated by Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert
In 1980s’ Réunion, monsters lurk beneath the surface of vibrant island life, ready to pounce at the slightest disturbance
In 1980s’ Réunion, monsters lurk beneath the surface of vibrant island life, ready to pounce at the slightest disturbance
La Réunion in the 1980s: a place of high unemployment and low expectations, the legacy of postcolonialism. Here, a little girl makes a bid for escape from her sadistic parents’ reign of terror and turns to school for salvation.
The name Dessaintes is one to reckon with. A bombastic, violent and increasingly dangerous clan, little do they know that their downfall is being chronicled by one of their own.
Rich in the history of the island’s customs and superstition and driven by a wild, offbeat humour, this picaresque tale manages to satirise the very notion of freedom available in this French territory, and perhaps even the act of writing itself and where it might lead you.
Gaëlle Bélem
About the Author
Award-winning author Gaëlle Bélem is from La Réunion
Karen Fleetwood
About the Translator
Karen Fleetwood is a literary translator based in Scotland
Laëtitia Saint-Loubert
About the Translator
Laëtitia Saint-Loubert is a French literary translator and teacherIn prose that throbs with verve, humour and pain, this story set on the island of Réunion brings to life a narrator beset with the history of her family and her people
— The 2025 judges on There's a Monster Behind the Door
What the judges said
‘If there ever was a need to prove how a translation can vividly recreate a sense of place and time and personhood, Gaëlle Bélem’s There’s a Monster Behind the Door would be exhibit A, with translators Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert brought in to testify. In prose that throbs with verve, humour and pain, this narrative set on the island of Réunion brings to life a narrator beset with the history of her family and her people, who tries to use the power of language and literature to transcend her circumstances. While she fails within the story, the book succeeds – spectacularly – as a novel.’
Gaëlle Bélem on There's a Monster Behind the Door
‘My inspirations are many and varied. I wrote this book in the same way you would make a refreshing cocktail: from several ingredients. Firstly, a pinch of music. To me, my book is the literary equivalent of a rap song from 1996 – Nirvana by Doc Gynéco. It’s a cynical song about prison, total demotivation and suicide. That’s where the dark part of the text comes from. Then there’s a spoonful of cinema. The stylised violence of Tarantino (Django Unchained and Kill Bill) and of Park Chan-wook (Lady Vengeance, Old Boy) and the denunciation of social injustices of Bong Joon-ho (Snowpiercer) made a big impression on me. After rewatching those films, I wanted to combine all that and write about misery in a very stylised and sophisticated way.’
Read the full interview here.
Karen Fleetwood and Laëtitia Saint-Loubert on There's a Monster Behind the Door
‘It took us [Fleetwood and Saint-Loubert] about a year to translate the novel, which we did alongside our day-to-day work. I read it through once before embarking on the translation. Laëtitia and I worked by each translating alternate sections, which the other would then read through, comment on and revise. We then discussed any particular challenges in each section, bouncing around ideas. Gaëlle was kind enough to answer any questions that we had along the way, usually with respect to cultural specificities or individual words. Finally, we reread the entire text again a couple of times to improve its flow and consistency.’
Read the full interview here.
