Sophie Buchaillard is a writer, educator, campaigner, and a Senior Fellow of the Higher Education Academy. Her new novel, Assimilation (Honno, 2024) is a tale of unravelling family secrets, belonging, betrayal and inherited trauma. Her debut novel, This is Not Who We Are (Seren Books), the story of two pen friends against the backdrop of the 1994 genocide against the Tutsi, was shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year in 2023. Sophie writes about identity, migration and belonging. She lives in South Wales.
Assimilation
(Honno)
One family's story set against the backdrop of some of the biggest political and humanitarian events of the century.
A tale of unravelling family secrets, belonging, betrayal and inherited trauma, Assimilation will transport readers in time and place through one family’s history and struggle.
Charlotte, young and fiercely independent, desperately needs to escape the confines of her mother, Marianne’s expectations and a dreadful trauma. She leaves France and arrives in Wales, hoping to find peace and somewhere to rebuild her life.
Marianne, a mother with a colourful past, keeping a terrible secret, tries her best to conform to French middle class expectations.
In this stunning new novel, Buchaillard takes us on an adventure pursuing spies, drug dealers and even a talking bear.
Beautifully written, stunningly observed. A vivid and confronting book.
Rebecca Parfitt, Commissioning Editor, Honno
A truly clever and heart racing depiction of the human condition in one of it rawest forms. Assimilation asks what we all face at some junction in our lives - where do I belong? Where do I fit in?
An overwhelmingly beautiful story that takes us around the world and through time in a unique way. A credit to the talent and mind of Sophie Buchaillard.
A story from the past with clear relevance in our current climate, Buchaillard holds up a mirror and asks us to reflect on the consequences of our own choices.’
Connor Allen, The Making of a Monster (Former Children Laureate for Wales)
Assimilation is a perceptive and compelling novel that invites the reader to seek out new ways of negotiating the labyrinth of personal and cultural identity. Sophie Buchaillard weaves her tale with skill and acumen, offering rare insights into migration, foreignness, family, and much else besides.
Richard Gwyn, The Colour of a Dog Running Away
An emotionally involving story of a difficult mother-daughter relationship and the potentially devastating consequences of long-held family secrets, which gives a revealing insight into the experience of migration. Engrossing and moving.
Alison Layland, Riverflow
This is Not Who We Are
(Seren Books)
Shortlisted for the Wales Book of the Year 2023
In 1994 a young Rwandan woman and her brothers are caught up in the violent chaos that follows the assassination of the President. Meanwhile, in the present day, Iris – a journalist with a young family – searches obsessively for traces of Victoria, the pen-friend who disappeared during the Rwandan genocide thirty years before. As their lives interweave, both women have ghosts and secrets to confront, and must decide how to take responsibility for the past.
This is Not Who We Are blends elements of fiction and autobiography to explore vastly different perspectives on the tragedy of Rwanda and the experience of migration. The book is deeply compassionate and clear-sighted, and asks uncomfortable questions about European culpability for the violence while never losing sight of the human complexities of its characters.
Watch Sophie talk about her characters, the process of writing This Is Not Who We Are, and the context in which Iris and Victoria started their correspondence.
A multi-layered and very moving novel about the Rwandan genocide and the culpability of the French government. The central idea of pen friends whose letter-writing is disrupted by war feels original and offers a fruitful way into this complex subject matter. An excellent debut and I can't wait to see what Sophie Buchaillard writes next.
Katherine Stansfield, author of The Visitor and The Magpie Tree
This is a powerfully empathetic and sensitive book, which reserves its real rage for the ideological fanatics who deliberately mutate anger at oppression into a specious salvationist enterprise, hate-fuelled, directed at other victims of that same oppression.
Niall Griffiths, author of Broken Ghosts
“There is no doubt that This is Not Who We Are will resonate with anyone who is interested in exploring topics such as identity, otherness, and the power of language, as well as those simply seeking a poignant and thought-provoking novel.”
Aline Moura, The Cardiff Review
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Journal
Mentoring
Formerly the director of coaching company Creative Confidence Consulting, Sophie is passionate about supporting others in developing their creative career.
She offers mentoring sessions for writers looking for support in planning and developing a writing project. For further details, get in touch using the contact page.
Nominations for Wales Book of the Year and becoming a Hay Writer at Work