The Franco-Moroccan author Leïla Slimani is regarded as one of France’s most important literary voices. Her books are international bestsellers. Slimani, born in Rabat in 1981, grew up in Morocco and studied at Sciences Po in Paris. She was awarded the prestigious Prix Goncourt for her novel Then You Sleep Too«. Her most recent novels published by Luchterhand Literaturverlag are »The Land of Others«, »Look How We Dance« and »Carry the Fire On«. They form part of a trilogy based on the history of Leïla Slimani’s own family.
»Leïla Slimani has transformed world history into literature in a wonderfully beautiful, vivid and captivating way, carrying us through three generations.« (Volker Weidermann, DIE ZEIT) In her new Book, Leïla Slimani brings together her most important essays, speeches and columns for the first time. Drawing on her own biography – spanning Morocco and France, Arabic and French – she describes in the eponymous essay what it means to write in a language that is not one’s own, and how colonial history continues to have an impact to this day.
She writes about real and symbolic boundaries, about fanaticism, racism, migration, feminism and marginalisation, and champions literature as a space for empathy, diversity of voices and doubt. The volume is complemented by her highly acclaimed opening speech at the Berlin International Literature Festival, as well as essays and columns written in the wake of the terrorist attacks in France, which remain as relevant today as ever. A perceptive book on the present day – and a passionate plea for literature as a necessary counterforce in an increasingly polarised world.
PERFORMERS
Leïla Slimani reading
Volker Weidermann moderation
