Month: March 2017

Unfortunately, Mathias Malzieu is no longer able to travel to London, and his publisher and agent have had to cancel this event.

To have had my life saved has been the most extraordinary adventure I have ever had says Mathias Malzieu. Best known as the lead singer of the French band Dionysos, Mathias is now also an acclaimed writer. He will join us – possibly with some music – on the occasion of the UK launch of his latest book, Diary of a Vampire in Pyjamas by Quercus. Insightful, tragic and funny, it is the memoir of one who lives to tell the tale of his close encounter with death, and of his addictive wonder at the triumph of the human spirit. Mathias will be in conversation with his publisher, Katy Follain.

Related / Latest publication(s)

Diary of a Vampire in Pyjamas (Quercus, 2017)
Translated by Sam Alexander

Film

France/Belgique | 2016 | dir. Stéphane Brizé, with Judith Chemla, Jean-Pierre Darroussin, Yolande Moreau, Swann Arlaud

In this compelling adaptation of Guy de Maupassant’s A Life, Jeanne, a young noblewoman, copes with the loss of her ideals as she sets out on the path of adulthood and gradually experiences the harsh realities of a woman's life in the nineteenth century.

Related / Latest publication(s)

A Life (Oxford University Press, 2009)

Talk

Join Emmanuelle Pagano, Ananda Devi and the brand new Librairie Caravansérail for an afternoon of readings, dance, and other pleasures. In Trysting (Nouons-nous, published by And Other Stories), Emmanuelle Pagano presents a myriad of minutely choreographed vignettes on love and desire. Ananda Devi sets Eve out of her Ruins (Eve de ses décombres, published by Les Fugitives) in her native island Mauritius, telling the loss of innocence of four teenagers against the backdrop of postcolonial fin-de-siècle. Pagano and Devi will talk about their work and the influences of other voices and art forms, accompanied by dancers from Tangolicious. The discussion will welcome Trysting's co-translators Sophie Lewis as chair and Jennifer Higgins as interpreter. The talk will be followed by a festive "goûter" to celebrate the launch of Caravanserail.

Check out www.tangolicious.org

Related / Latest publication(s)

Trysting (And Other Stories, 2016)
Translated by Jennifer Higgins and Sophie Lewis

Eve out of her Ruins (Les Fugitives/CB éditions, 2016)
Translated by Jeffrey Zuckerman

Café Philo

For this special festival edition of our Café Philo, come and discuss the question of truth and fiction. In times of Post-Truth and alternative realities, what do we hope for when we read fictional stories? To what extent do fragments of reality impact the imaginary quality of the narrative? What narratives and fictions seem most relevant to today’s concerns?

Film

FRA | 2016 | dir. Dominique Cabrera, with Lola Creton, Aïssa Maïga, Moussa Maaskri

Adapted from a novel by Maylis de Kerangal, Corniche Kennedy follows a group of adolescents from the working-class neighbourhoods of Marseille who defy the laws of gravity in this ode to youthful sincerity and blue summers by the Mediterranean sea. Maylis de Kerangal has just been shortlisted for the Wellcome Trust prize for Mend the Living (MacLehose Press).

Related / Latest publication(s)

Corniche Kennedy (Verticales, 2008)

Talk

To celebrate the UK launch of The French Art of War (Atlantic Books) and the French publication of The Return (Penguin/Gallimard), we welcome Goncourt prize winner Alexis Jenni and Pulitzer Prize winner, PEN America 2017 laureate Hisham Matar. Jenni’s novel spans essential decades of recent French history, from the aftermath of the Second World War in the 1950s, to the decolonisation and Algerian war of the 1970s. Meanwhile, Matar tells his illuminating journey to find his father, kidnapped and handed over to the Libyan regime in 1990, and retraces his steps to rediscover his country after years of exile. Both authors will be joined by their translators, French writer Agnès Desarthe and Frank Wynne, for a discussion on writing, generations, history and violence.

Related / Latest publication(s)

The French Art of War (Atlantic Books, 2017)
Translated by Frank Wynne

The Return: Fathers, Sons and the Land In Between (Viking, 2016)

La terre qui les sépare (Gallimard, 2017)
Translated by Agnès Desarthe

Shared Reading

Poems are to be shared, embodied, whispered and spoken out loud, and our poetry libraries are full of fragments of wisdom and beauty waiting to be re-read. Come and bring to life an exciting selection of French poetry from the National Poetry Library's collection, by Baudelaire, Cendrars, Apollinaire, Vénus Khoury-Ghata and more. A collective performance led by Erica Jarnes - no preparation necessary, just bring your voice and ears.

www.poetrylibrary.org.uk

Talk

Discover the incredible story of Emile Zola’s escape to London in the aftermath of the scandalous Dreyfus Affair. Michael Rosen, Children’s Laureate and author of more than 140 books enjoyed by children and adults alike, offers an intriguing and personal insight into the mind, the love, and the politics of Zola in a book published this year by Faber & Faber. He will take you behind the scenes of the famous J’accuse that forced Zola to leave Paris in disgrace. Michael will be in conversation with Sarah Ardizzone, with whom he worked on the programme Zola in Norwood (BBC Radio 3).

Related / Latest publication(s)

The Disappearance of Emile Zola (Faber, 2017)

Staged Reading

Before I had a chance to rebel against the world of my childhood, that world rebelled against me. The festival opens with an exceptional staged reading of a book which took the French literary scene by storm. Translated into twenty languages and now into English by Harvill Secker, Edouard Louis’ The End of Eddy (translated by Michael Lucey) tells the life of a young gay boy growing up in a French town crushed by misery, alcoholism, racism and homophobia. Giving a voice to the voiceless, it is a painful and vibrant story of escape and revolt. How to reinvent what has been forced upon us? How to get the better of a life not chosen? Adapted to the stage by French director Richard Brunel, director of the Comédie de Valence National Theatre, with Henry Pettigrew in the title role, and actors newly graduated from the Manchester School of Theatre.

Related / Latest publication(s)

The End of Eddy (Harvill Secker, 2017)
En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule Translated by Michael Lucey

photo: ©JLFernandez