A champion of game shows back in bookstores. Paul El Kharrat, revealed in Les 12 coups de midi in 2019, publishes this Wednesday, October 12 Welcome to my world, in collaboration with Delphine Saubaber at HarperCollins Editions. Two years after the autobiography My 153rd Victory, followed by Crimes and mysteries of Paris where he returned to the sordid affairs in the capital, this history buff resumed his pen to invite his readers to discover another facet of his personality.
If viewers have fallen in love with WikiPaul (the nickname given by his fans in front of his incredible general knowledge), the Grenoble native uses this media exposure to reveal the real Paul, “autistic Asperger”, as mentioned by the sub- title of his third book. The motivation for this new release? “Restore some semblance of truth”, assures the young man of 23 years for Planet.
In the eyes of fans of Jean-Luc Reichmann’s program, Paul El Kharrat is considered “someone adorable, admirable and kind”, according to him. Faced with so many preconceptions about him, the former candidate wanted to reveal a more unexpected part of his personality. “I also wanted to show the extremely grueling, dark and depressive reverse side of my personality by writing this book. Behind this facade smile hides an individual who suffers enormously every day”.
From his youth in Metropolitan France, Reunion and Martinique, Paul turns out to be a turbulent, thoughtful and hypersensitive child. A boy plagued by doubt in front of helpless parents. Until the day when we put a word on its difference. “D-Day is coming. The one where I have to be told whether I am autistic, carrier of Asperger’s syndrome, or not. This June 22, 2015 which I will remember all my life. I am sixteen years old”, recounts the writer in his autobiography.
From his schooling to high school, including human, friendly and romantic interactions, Paul El Kharrat delivers himself without taboo on autism, with its joys and its sorrows. “My desire to write is a personal desire. To show people my other personality, which is not very visible, because I have a mental strength that allows me to hide it when I am in public, to avoid denigrating myself in front of people” , he explains, adding. “I fight every day against my dark enough inclinations to avoid revealing them”.
With a certain maturity, Paul El Kharrat also evokes his dark thoughts. “It has increased in contact with people since my media coverage. Being in the limelight, as Chaplin would say, is quite exhausting and complicated”, declares the ex-champion with sincerity. While he was just thinking of making a flash passage in Les 12 coups de midi, it was for almost six months that he will be in the spotlight. An exhibition for which the young prodigy remains grateful.
“All this allowed me to write books, to promote them and then to be spotted by other animators and to do shows like Les Grosses têtes which I do with great pleasure”, admits the member of the Laurent Ruquier band. By inviting his readers into his world, Paul El Kharrat hopes to reach a wide audience through his message. “I want to reach as many people as possible, to make them understand my personal journey”.
Not without a touch of humor specific to the young writer Asperger. “They won’t fully understand everything. It’s impossible, even my parents don’t understand everything (laughs). But even capturing a third of the speech would be an exceptional thing”.
© Aura Constantin / HarperCollins Publishing
