Benares

Writer, editor, Barlen Pyamootoo lives in Trou d’Eau live-Douce, Mauritius, where he was born.

Barlen Pyamootoo began studying literature at the University of Strasbourg. After teaching in France and Mauritius from 1988 to 1995, he devoted himself to writing and editing.
In 1999 he published his first novel, “Benaras” (Editions de l’Olivier) highly acclaimed by critics. “…. A very small book, where each word is counted as a scarce and precious. A mere 100 pages, written in a language so simple, so pure that it seems clear …” G. Garcin
Three years later he published his second work, “The Tower of Babylon” (Editions de l’Olivier – 2002), Barlen Pyamootoo takes us into this mythical city of Mesopotamia, now war-torn Iraq. Far from being a tourist guide, this novel is more like a geography of the soul. “… Precise as a travel diary, the story winds on Babylon unreal to write a winged, twirls and knows that dwelling on a look, an emotion …”.
He began with the film adaptation of his first novel which he signed the execution. “Benares” has the distinction of having been shot in the vernacular: the Mauritian Creole.