What Would I Be Without You ? Guillaume Musso - Page 1 - What Would I Be Without You ? Guillaume Musso - Video and excerpt 1 That summer… The first love is always the last. Tahar Ben Jelloun San Francisco, California Summer of 1995 Gabrielle is 20. She’s American, a senior at Berkeley. That summer, she often wears faded jeans, a white shirt and a close-fitting leather jacket. Her long, silky hair and green eyes flecked with gold make her look like the photos of Françoise Hardy taken by Jean-Marie Périer in the Sixties. That summer, she is going to experience her first great love. Martin is 21. He is French and has just received his law degree from the Sorbonne. That summer, he has set off to the United States on his own to perfect his English and discover the country from the inside. As he has no money, he has been working a non-stop series of part-time jobs, putting in more than seventy hours a week: waiter, ice cream vendor, gardener… That summer, he is going to live his last great love. 1 San Francisco Airport 9 a.m. It is raining. Still not fully awake, Martin stifles a yawn and holds tightly to the rail of the bus. The suspension is worn, and the vehicle sways with every curve. He is wearing an imitation-leather coat, ripped jeans, worn sneakers and a tee-shirt bearing the effigy of a rock group. That summer, all young people look more or less like Kurt Cobain. His head is buzzing with the memories of these two months spent in the U.S. He doesn’t want to go back to France. Here, he really got an eyeful. And a heartful. California has taken him so far from Évry and the Paris suburbs... The Powell Street shuttle disgorges travelers in front of the international terminal. In the rush, Martin grabs his guitar from the luggage rack. Loaded down like a mule, he is the last to get off the bus, rummages around in his pocket to find his ticket and, nose in the air, tries to get his bearings in this urban maze. He doesn’t see her immediately. She has double-parked her car, the motor running. Gabrielle. She is drenched with rain. She’s cold and trembles a little. He,She recognize each other. He,She run towards the other. They embrace, hearts pounding, as people do when they still believe in it. And they kiss. Their mouths hungrily search for each other, their breath mixes, their wet hair gets entangled. He has his hand on the back of her neck; hers caresses his cheek. In their urgency, they whisper a few awkward words of love. She pleads: “Don’t go!” Stay longer! He doesn’t know it now, but he will never experience anything better in his life. Nothing purer, more luminous or more intense than Gabrielle’s green eyes shining in the rain that summer morning. And her voice begging him not to go. 2 A month later September 9 Paris suburb 9 p.m. Martin leaves the small room he occupies in his grandparents’ public housing unit. The elevator is out of service again. Nine floors on foot. Mailboxes ripped off. Fights in the stairwells. Here, nothing has changed. It takes him a half-hour to find a phone both that has not been vandalized. At last, he inserts his phone card into the slot and dials a transatlantic number. 12,000 kilometers away, it is 12:30 in San Francisco. The telephone rings in a cafeteria on the Berkeley campus… 49, 48, 47… His stomach in knots, he closes his eyes and says simply: “It’s me, Gabrielle.” First, she laughs because she is surprised and happy. Then she starts sobbing because it is too hard being separated. …38, 37, 36 … He tells her he misses her so much, that he loves her, that he doesn’t think he can live without her… …she tells him how much she wishes she were really there, next to him, to sleep with him, kiss him, caress him, bite him, smother him with love. …25, 24, 23 … He listens to her voice and everything surges back: the texture of her skin, the smell of the sand, the wind in her hair, her “Luv ya”s…. …, his “Je t’aime”s, his hand encircling her neck, his eyes seeking hers, the violence and gentleness of their lovemaking. …20, 19, 18 … 3 He looks at the LED screen in the phone booth with alarm: it is torture seeing the units of the phone card running out so quickly. …11, 10, 9 … Then they say nothing more, for there is a catch in their voices. They listen only to the pounding of their hearts beating together and the softness of their breathing, which is in harmony, despite the goddamn phone. …3, 2, 1, 0… * In those days, no one had heard of the Internet, e-mail, Skype or instant messaging. In those days, love letters sent from France took ten days to arrive in California. In those days, when you wrote “I love you”, you had to wait three weeks to have the response. And waiting three weeks for an “I love you” is not really human when you’re twenty years old. * There it is. This story only tells about things in life. The story of a young man and a young woman who run towards each other. Everything began with a kiss, one summer morning, beneath the San Francisco sky. Everything almost came to an end one Christmas night, in a New York bar and a California clinic. Then the years went by… 4 FIVE BESTSELLERS In just 6 years 5 million copies sold in France 31 languages 4 films - International co-productions Afterwards... Save Me Will You Be There? Because I Love You I Will Come Back To Get You ADAPTED OR TO BE ADAPTED TO CINEMA AFTERWARDS... An international co-production starring, John Malkovich, Evangeline Lily and Romain Duris. Rights sold to 26 distributors (80 countries). Released in France on January 14, 2009 SAVE ME Film rights under negociation WILL YOU BE THERE? Film rights just sold to Films Christian Fechner. BECAUSE I LOVE YOU Film rights just sold to #1 Major European Film Producer, UGC. FOREIGN PUBLISHERS Brazil: Nova Fronteira Bulgaria: Itzok Zapad China: Shanghai 99 Publishing Croatia: Ibis Grafik Czech Rep.: Euromedia Estonia: Eesti Raamat Germany: Blanvalet / Aufbau Greece: Modern Times / Esoptron Hungary: Ulpius Haz Italy: Sonzogno / Rizzoli Israel: Miskal Japan: Ta-Ke Shobo / Shogakukan Korea: The Open Books / Balgungsesang Lebanon: Arab Cultural Center Lithuania: Alma Littera Macedonia: Toper Netherlands: Arena Poland: Albatros Portugal: Bertrand Editora Romania: Rao Books Russia: Geleos Serbia: Alnari Slovakia: Ikar Publishers Spain: Martinez Roca / Maeva Slovenia: Ucila Sweden: Damm Forlag Taiwan: Crown Publishing Turkey: Salyangoz UK: Hodder & Stoughton Vietnam: Nha Nam Publishing What Would I Be Without You? Gabrielle has two men in her life. One is her father; the other is her first love. One is a famous cop; the other is a renowned thief. Fate took them away from her a long me ago. On the same day, at the same me, they reappear And turn her life upside down. They know each other, they hate each other and they will challenge each other to death. Gabrielle refuses to make her choice. She would like to protect them, to bring them together and to love both of them. But there are some duels that ineluctably lead to death. Except if... From the roofs of Paris to the sun of San Francisco, a first love that lights up an en re life, an entrancing story, full of suspense and magic. « With Musso, emotion is majorly emphasised. » LE FIGARO MAGAZINE « Musso demonstrates he is the master at creating mystery. » PARIS MATCH Foreign rights manager : AXELLE HARDY Foreign rights : FLORENCE PARIENTE Tel : + 33 1 56 80 26 80 / fax : + 33 1 56 54 27 38 ahardy@xoedi ons.com / fpariente@xoedi ons.com xoedi ons.com Tour Maine Montparnasse 33 avenue du Maine BP 142 - 75755 Paris Cedex 15 - France Born in 1974 in Antibes, Guillaume Musso first encountered literature at the age of ten, and from then on, he became convinced that one day, he too would write novels. In 2004, Guillaume Musso entrusted XO with his novel Et Après... And that is the beginning of his success story. www.guillaumemusso.com
What Would I Be Without You ? Guillaume Musso - Page 1
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