We took advantage of Belgian writer Paul Colize’s visit to Nice on the occasion of the release of his new work, The Season of Rains to meet with him. An informal and friendly moment that allowed us to better understand his world.
Unfortunately too little known in France, Paul Colize was in Nice this weekend to meet his readers at the Jean-Jaurès bookstore on the occasion of the release of his latest book: The Season of Rains published by Hervé Chopin editions at the beginning of 2026.
He who describes himself — not without humor — as being an “introvert, an asocial, a misanthrope”, nonetheless has a loyal readership who have had the pleasure of reading him since 2012 and with at least more than twenty books to his name.
Writing as a way of life
Paul Colize was born in 1953 in Brussels. He became a writer late in life, following a professional anecdote that marked him and which formed the basis of his first novel. Writing has not let him go since. The author speaks openly about his relationship with literature: a pleasure above all. He tells us he has always been a great reader of crime novels: a passion transmitted by a relative when he was a child, and he would search for books in the library. He devoured them in secret, since this type of book was considered inadvisable for juvenile sensibilities. Alongside the great academic classics taught in school, the author discovered very early a passion for the pleasure of investigation, suspense, darkness and the misery that inhabits the human soul, and truth.
It’s hard to believe this self-portrait mentioned earlier, as Paul Colize is an expert in human relations (indeed, the writer has a long career as a communication consultant). Without false modesty when we ask him about his status as a writer, he simply replies that he is a “storyteller, a narrator.” In reality, we would rather say that he is above all a discreet man, who admits himself that he does not write “for glory, nor for money.” He who is also a music lover does not want to write out of constraint; he writes out of desire and passion. That is surely what makes the recognized quality of each of his books, many of which have been repeatedly rewarded with prestigious awards.
How does Paul Colize construct his narratives?
We ask him if he has a work methodology: not really, the idea of a book often comes to him while walking, and then the story inhabits him. Then begins a long preparatory work of historical research on the reality of the facts that will constitute the plot of the novel. Fascinating for him. Reading Paul Colize is therefore letting yourself be caught up in the game of following the lives of ordinary people caught in the meanders of great History. Thrilling and frightening. The historical truth of the facts is a significant part of the interest of his work: you learn enormously, in addition to literary pleasure. He amuses himself with the unclassifiable status of his books, being neither quite “detective novels” nor completely “thrillers.” His books approach general literature, while retaining many characteristics of noir novels. He also tells us he does not want to explain scenes of violence: the reader’s imagination does the rest… It is devastatingly effective.
The Season of Rains is woven with four intrigues whose threads converge in the final acceleration; it’s up to the reader to try to make the connections thanks to his imagination… Paul Colize enjoys sowing clues. The novel begins with the introduction of the first thread: we discover Claire, an ordinary young woman, mother of two children, an independent coach, and who volunteers at the hospital to accompany people at the end of life. This is how she will come to receive the confidences of Delcourt, a patient in palliative care, which will lead her to discover certain episodes of her country’s history, to her detriment. The reader will discover with Claire dark episodes of Belgian history during the fighting accompanying the decolonization of the Congo.
The pleasure of this latest book lies above all in the writer’s style and tone, sober but very subtle and particularly apt: we enter his world with delight and find ourselves developing ambiguous feelings; certain characters, inhabited by a disturbing, sordid and pitiless evil, manage to draw some sympathy from us. Although The Season of Rains is undoubtedly a noir novel, there is also much humanity.
A must-read to get a thrill.
The Season of Rains (Hervé Chopin editions) — Paul Colize — €19.50.
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