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A bookworm since childhood, Ines Lamallem knew how to make literature her passion very early on. Her writing efforts paid off: the 17-year-old high school student has just published her first edited novel, «Santana» (KER, 2020), which has gained success among readers. This book was also the favorite of the organizers and the jury of the Laure Nobels Foundation, which awarded it the Young Public Brabant Wallon Prize.
Ines Lamallem told Yabiladi that she is making a «childhood dream» come true, although she did not expect it would happen so soon. «Every time I apply for a competition, I imagine that there are other young people who write better than me, 17-18 year olds for example. I was 15 or 16 when I started working on this novel, so I wasn't expecting it at all», Ines said.
The library, a Proustian madeleine
Born in Brussels, Ines also keeps fond memories of books read by her relatives with love and enthusiasm. «My mom reads a lot of books in Arabic. When she was little, she made books herself by making collages, using string; they looked like diaries. My maternal grandfather also has a large library at his home in Al Hoceïma. During our holidays there, I often saw him immersed in his books», the young author recalled.
Ines also owes her fluency in writing in part to her sister, who familiarized her with grammar and spelling before she started primary school. «When she came home from school, she opened her textbooks to teach me a few lessons of what she had learned during the day in class».
«I was 4 to 6 years old when my mother took me to the library on Wednesday afternoons with my older sister and my little brother.My mom really introduced me to reading like this.As I grew up, I started to write stories».
At ten years of age, Ines Lamallem started writing a diary, then stories and eventually a first publishable novel from the age of 12-13, which remained in manuscript form. «I sent it to a French publisher, who agreed to publish it. But since I was very young and living in Brussels which was far away, it was a bit difficult for my mother and I to travel to France and carry out all the legal and administrative procedures», she explained.
Like her book «Santana» which was eventually published, this first writing shed light on an aspect of the life of young people the age of Ines, who draw inspiration from their environment to write novels, where reality meets fiction.
«I have always written about young people because I am one of them.I like to talk about our daily life, drug issues, violence between young people, those who achieve great feats.The life of young people interests me a lot».
Encouraging young people to help each other
Today, Ines Lamallem is in her senior year in high school. She dreams of becoming a French teacher in middle school (13 to 15 years old students, ed). «Most of the young people in my school have difficulty learning the language and this is often the case in Brussels. Some students have trouble in these levels in which we actually learn the basics of grammar, spelling and language. I would therefore like to teach at these levels to help them gather a better background which will help them be stronger in high school», she declared with determination.
Ines' novel also evokes an aspect of the difficulties young people face. «Santana» is in fact the story of a young boy, who became violent in high school following a trauma during his childhood. His schoolmates fear him and avoid him, but fellow pupil Emma tries in the book to unravel the mystery behind the young boy's behavior, which eventually leads to a love story between the two teenagers, but also to a lot of violence to which Emma is subjected.
«In Belgium, most of the young people of my generation are very violent towards each other.Insults, foul language and physical violence have become commonplace among us.I wanted to talk about it in my book, by representing youth as they are, while talking about the violence that girls particularly suffer from».
Released in October, the book has also won over former teachers as well as some young people. «Other adults were shocked to see that young people could be so violent», the author said.
However, Ines Lamallem does not let herself be lulled by the success and jubilation of the release of this first novel. «I have already started writing the second, which will also deal with young people and juvenile drug trafficking. It is also inspired by what I see around me among young people», the young writer underlined, expressing her wish to renew the collaboration with her current editors.
