By the author
Fabrice BRIVOT

The story of sILEnce emerged quietly, left on the shores of my inner world by waves that receded gently, probably after a storm—I can’t quite remember.
I had noted it down and silently thanked it, as one should.
And then she had stayed there for a long time, until I met the magnificent drawings of Giulia Ravarotto, that I tell her about it and that she agrees to illustrate it immediately.
A few paths later, once I had Giulia’s illustrations in my hands, sILEnce paradoxically deafened me : a second, unexpected phase of creation opened before my eyes, hands, and imagination—a period of work that was challenging, solitary, long, yet thrilling. I had to try to give rhythm to this unmeasured time, to breathe life into an invisible, fragile hourglass so that each moment could flow at its proper pace; to set the silence to music so you could at least hear the wind on this island… To shape, arrange, doubt, recreate, erase, seize accidents, preserve them, mold the existing—all guided by Giulia’s lines, without ever betraying their subtlety or delicacy. Above all, to protect that delicacy…

And then, one day, it is done. The clamor disappears, and the book is there, beneath it all. It had always been there. And it waits, calm and serene. It knows it will travel elsewhere, drifting gently into other hands. Yours. It is not afraid; it knows why it exists.

May it…

By the illustrator
Giulia RAVAROTTO

sILEnce was for me an immersion in a familiar space, at once wonderful and frightening.
A space in which to breathe and celebrate the details, which one after the other by their mere presence were carriers of a story; deep and ancient, as tender as our hearts.

I was accompanied by the question : what is it like to draw silent images, that ask nothing?
What is it like to simply stand beside you reading? And I let the answer come without looking.