Of Spanish origin, Olivia Ruiz grew up in Marseillette, in Occitania. Three of her grandparents fled the Spanish civil war but never spoke about it. This silence gave rise to her first novel. A versatile artist (song writer, singer, actress), she made a masterful entry into literature with La Commode aux tiroirs de couleurs (The Dresser with Coloured Drawers) JC Lattès, 2020, Le Livre de Poche, 2021, which won over half a million readers. Her second novel, Écoute la pluie tomber (Listen to the Rain Fall), JC Lattès, 2022, is also based on her family history.
Her first novel La Commode aux tiroirs de couleurs (The Dresser with Coloured Drawers) JC Lattès, 2020 has sold more than half a million copies in France alone, the rights were bought after an auction by the international Pathé group for a mini-series in international co-production, which has been successfully released in more than 15 countries in the world.
Book in focus
Listen to the Rain Fall (JC Lattès, 2022)
Ruiz’s first novel about a family in exile from Spain and rebellious women marked by uprooting, took France by a storm in 2020. Her new novel, also based on her family history, follows a feisty young woman whose struggle for independence takes her to the abyss and back
1977, Marseillette. Back at the café where she grew up, Carmen mourns her beloved niece and remembers her mistakes and her passionate choices, in the company of her sisters whose exile she shares and who have made their own destinies in Marseillette. Unrepentant, Carmen recalls her struggles, from a hacienda near Toledo to the Madrid prison of Venats where Francoism rages. Still young, she pines for a future which comes to her on a transatlantic liner from her past. A future where love triumphs over violence.
The story of strong women who challenge their fate and take control of their lives.
