{"id":1628,"date":"2026-08-11T11:49:07","date_gmt":"2026-08-11T09:49:07","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/gilbertdurand.fr\/?p=1628"},"modified":"2026-08-11T11:54:35","modified_gmt":"2026-08-11T09:54:35","slug":"how-the-past-refuses-to-die-was-born","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/gilbertdurand.fr\/index.php\/en\/2026\/08\/11\/how-the-past-refuses-to-die-was-born\/","title":{"rendered":"How The Past Refuses to Die Was Born"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

The idea for The Past Refuses to Die<\/em> came to me long before I began writing the novel.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And it began with a coincidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had just bought my first metal detector. That morning, I put it in the trunk of my car with a simple idea in mind: after work, I would go somewhere and try it out.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I hadn’t chosen a place.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

During the day, I stopped by to see a colleague who was working on a coin-operated machine. Scattered across his workbench were a few old coins that were no longer in use. Among them was an aluminum five-franc coin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The moment I saw it, I thought of my childhood. I used to have a piggy bank where I kept a few coins, and I particularly remembered those aluminum five-franc pieces.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I asked my colleague if I could have the coin as a keepsake. He was happy to give it to me.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I slipped it into my pocket.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And forgot all about it.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At the end of the day, I got into my car and drove off to try my metal detector.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I had no particular destination in mind.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What I remember most is deciding to let go. Not to look for a place that had any particular reason to be interesting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I took a small road. Then, for some reason, I felt like stopping in the middle of a forest. I followed a narrow trail for a few yards. Then, for no particular reason, I stepped off the trail and made my way into the undergrowth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A few moments later, my detector beeped.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I dug.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An aluminum five-franc coin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I picked it up and, almost immediately, reached into my pocket for the other one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I held the two coins in my hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The same coin, except for the date.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

One from 1947.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The other from 1949.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I stood there for a long time, looking at them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"<\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The two coins that gave birth to the idea for The Past Refuses to Die.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, you could call it a coincidence.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

An old coin on a workbench. Another buried beneath a few inches of soil.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A succession of decisions made almost at random: a road, a place to stop, a trail, then a few steps into the undergrowth.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Nothing impossible.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And yet…<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All those little things had to happen on the same day for those two coins to end up, just a few hours later, in my hands.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

That was when an idea began to take shape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

What if some coincidences weren’t just coincidences?<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

There was no S\u00e9bastien yet. No Margot. No real story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Just two coins in the palm of my hand.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But without knowing it yet, The Past Refuses to Die<\/em> had just begun.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The idea for The Past Refuses to Die came to me long before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":1567,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[32],"tags":[34],"class_list":["post-1628","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-anecdote-en","tag-the-past-refuses-to-die"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/gilbertdurand.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/gilbertdurand.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/gilbertdurand.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gilbertdurand.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gilbertdurand.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1628"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/gilbertdurand.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1630,"href":"https:\/\/gilbertdurand.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1628\/revisions\/1630"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gilbertdurand.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1567"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/gilbertdurand.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1628"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gilbertdurand.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1628"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/gilbertdurand.fr\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1628"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}