Author of about ten books and crowned, in particular, of the Mottart Prize awarded by the French Academy, the Swiss novelist Alexandre Jollien can boast of success in life. And yet it was not a given for him who suffers from cerebral palsy.
With total and touching transparency about his disability, Alexandre Jollien relates the cause in particular on his official website. He explains : “Wanting to move too much in the mother’s breast, I wind the umbilical cord three times around the neck, which in the process causes some ‘damage’. Cerebral palsy ensues.“Result of this bad luck,”from 3 to 20 years old, I live in a specialized institution for disabled people“, he adds, he who grew up in Sierre, in Switzerland. Rather than let himself be defeated, he will grow up with an iron will to succeed, in particular by the means of beautiful studies. leads to a BA in Letters from the University of Freiburg followed by an MA in Philosophy. He also studied Ancient Greek at Trinity College, Dublin. To this was added a three-year stay in Seoul, South Korea, where he works his zen practice.
Married since 2004 to Corine and father of three children (Victorine born in 2004, Augustin born in 2006 and Céleste born in 2011), Alexandre Jollien is a happy man and yet all was not obviously rosy. He readily recognizes it. “It is a force that requires daily combat. It must be maintained like a flame which is at the mercy of the slightest breath (…) Nothing predestined me to leave my specialized institute except my parents and my friends. When one has had a foundational confidence, hope becomes an instinct for life. What is paradoxical in me is that the extreme precariousness to which my handicap seemed to condemn me called for a general and complete mobilization. If I had not had this injury, I probably would not have mobilized so much energy“, he confided to Psychologies.com.
A life course which commands respect and admiration.