About the Author
BEHIND THE HOUSE
I. The Foundation
Cedric Owaka is a French and Congolese writer based in the United Kingdom. His life has taken him across Europe, Africa and Asia, living, studying and working between countries and cultures—an international perspective that shapes both the characters he creates and the worlds they inhabit.
II. The Journey
With a background in International Relations and a lifelong fascination with language, cinema and storytelling, Owaka writes about people whose identities rarely fit neatly within a single place. La Maison Edward brings together an international cast inside one of London's most powerful institutions, where ambition, loyalty and belonging become inseparable from the secrets people choose to protect.
III. The Edward Connection
One of the experiences that stayed with him most happened one morning, when a young girl knocked on his door and told him she had been raped.
It changed the way he thought about violence against women, about fear, silence, protection and the way people respond when someone vulnerable comes to them for help.
Those ideas became an important part of La Maison Edward. The novel is interested in power, class, identity and loyalty, but also in what happens when powerful institutions are more interested in protecting themselves than others.
Having lived between different countries, languages and cultures, Owaka has always been drawn to people who exist between worlds, and to the systems that decide who belongs, who is protected and who is left behind.
La Maison Edward is his debut novel.