Mr Schaka writes the way you hold your breath.
He lives with interstitial pulmonary fibrosis, a chronic disease that slowly scars the lung tissue, stiffens what ought to stay supple and makes every breath cost a little more than the one before. So he has learned to measure effort, time, and what is worth saying. He doesn’t turn it into a battle, or into a topic. It’s a given, nothing more. It has simply stripped away the superfluous.
He divides his life between Europe and Thailand, where he spends time regularly. From all that coming and going he has kept a certain distance from things, a taste for tides, thresholds and crossings, and a particular attention to whatever changes without a sound.
His books are published in French, and several are available in English. He has written The Season of Breath (“The Season of Breath”), the story of three months in Thailand, and a practical guide to Bangkok. He has also started Oscar’s Notebook, a mystery series set in Liège.
