Literature Night Hong Kong 2024 is a local edition of the project Literature Night organized by Czech Centers and EUNIC, which has been taking place in Prague since 2006. The aim is to introduce contemporary European literature through public readings in non-traditional venues.
The first and mini-version of the Literature Night in Hong Kong will take place from 3:30 to 6:30 pm on 16th November. During this 180 minutes, well-known Hong Kong personalities will read out excerpts (around 10 mins) of works by European writers in 4 different locations. At all locations, the readings will take place simultaneously at a 30-minute interval. Thus, during the whole event, each excerpt will be read six times at each venue.
Audiences can plan their own literature route ahead. Participating venue partners will all be in Central this year.
Title: Kairos Author: Jenny Erpenbeck German publisher: Penguin Verlag US publisher: New Directions Translator: Michael Hofmann Year: Original German: 2021 English version: 2023
Kairos tells the story of the romance begun in East Berlin at the end of the 1980s when nineteen-year-old Katharina meets by chance a married writer in his fifties named Hans. Their passionate yet difficult long-running affair takes place against the background of the declining GDR, through the upheavals wrought by its dissolution in 1989 and then what comes after. (source: New Directions)
WINNER OF THE 2024 INTERNATIONAL BOOKER PRIZE
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2023 NATIONAL BOOK AWARD FOR TRANSLATED LITERATURE
LONGLISTED FOR THE 2024 NATIONAL TRANSLATION AWARD IN PROSE
Jenny Erpenbeck was born in East Berlin in 1967. She is an opera director, playwright and award-winning novelist. Erpenbeck’s work has been translated into over 30 languages. In 2019 her novel Visitation was named one of the 100 best books of the 21st century by the Guardian.
Performer: Yik-Sau Chung
An actor from Hong Kong with a passion in theatre and dance. After receiving a scholarship from Lee Hysan Foundation, Chung started her training at Royal Central School of Speech and Drama and graduated with BA (Hons) Acting (Collaborative and Devised Theater). Also Graduated from BA (Hons) Chinese Language and Literature at the Chinese University of Hong Kong, Chung seeks to bring her heritage to reach a broader audience, and explore intercultural conversations through devising.
Spot 2 - The Lake
Venue: Novalis Art Design, 197 Hollywood Road, Hong Kong Organizer: Consulate General of Czechia
Title: The Lake Author: Bianca Bellová Publisher (cz): Host Publisher (eng): Parthian Books Translator: Alex Zucker Year: Original Czech: 2016
English version: 2022
The Lake
A dystopian page-turner about the coming of age of a young hero, which won the Czech nationals Magnesia Litera Book of the Year (2017), 2017 EU Prize for Literature and EBRD Literature Prize 2023.
A fishing village at the end of the world. A lake that is drying up and, ominously, pushing out its banks. The men have vodka, the women troubles, the children eczema to scratch at. Born into this unforgiving environment, Nami, a young boy, embarks on a journey with nothing but a bundle of nerves, a coat that was once his grandfather’s and the vague idea of searching for his mother, who disappeared from his life at a young age. To uncover the greatest mystery of his life, he must sail across and walk around the lake and finally sink to its bottom.
This novel is a raw account of life in a devastated land and the harsh, primitive circumstances under which people fight to survive. Nami’s story touches on various contemporary societal and political issues from life in post-soviet Europe to ecology, but they never take the spotlight away from the powerful central narrative. The tension between the novel’s uncertain setting, both in time and space, and its naturalistic realism transforms one boy’s coming of age into an often-disconcerting modern myth.
Bianca Bellová (1970) was born in Prague, where she lives halfway between the Balkan and British parts of her family. She is a writer, translator and interpreter. She has published several books of fiction, most notably the novel Jezero (The Lake, 2016) which has won a number of literary awards, including the 2017 EU Prize for Literature and the 2023 EBRD Literature Prize, and its publication rights have been sold to twenty-five countries. Her latest books are Ostrov (The Island, 2022) and Transfer (2023).
Performer: Jason Lee
Poet, Senior Lecturer at Hong Kong Baptist University
Spot 3 - My Stupid Intentions
Venue: La Biblioteca Italian Library, R H210, Block B, PMQ, 35 Aberdeen Street, Central Organizer: Italian Cultural Institute of Hong Kong
Title: My Stupid Intentions Author: Bernardo Zannoni Publisher (Italian): Selleria Editore Palermo Publisher (eng): New York Review Books Translator: Alex Andriesse Year: Original Italian Edition: 2021 English version: 2023
My Stupid Intentions
This is the long life of a marten, told in its own words. Among forest trees, grassy hills, underground burrows, and the countryside subdued by humans, unfolds the story of an animal unlike any other. Archy is born one winter night alongside his siblings: his mother’s mate has been killed, and she must raise them alone.
In this book, animals speak, use plates for food, utensils, tables, beds, and light fires, yet their world remains a harsh and ruthless struggle for survival, just as nature itself is. They are driven by need and instinct, the strongest rules, and the loser must fend for themselves. It is precisely by sensing her son's weakness that the mother trades Archy for a chicken and a half. His new master is named Solomon, an old fox full of secrets who lives atop a hill. These changes will disrupt Archy's life: stolen loves, the daily cruelty of existence, the present and the past will reveal themselves to him with incredible force. Between terror and wonder, as the seasons pass relentlessly and the urge of new desires arises, mysteries and secrets will unfold beneath his paws. Archy will become less and less like an animal, a silent miracle within the forests, an anomaly. In counterpoint, within the pages of this book, there is the miracle of a compelling narrative that guides the reader into a dimension no longer human, precisely when it confronts them with the essential questions of what it means to be men and women.
My Stupid Intentions is an ambitious and transparent novel, written by a young man of only twenty-five. Like a sign of hope, of the future, for those who live by books.
The book won the Premio Campiello 2022, Premio Bagutta Opera Prima 2022, Premio Salerno Letteratura 2022, Premio Severino Cesari 2022, Premio Moncalieri 2022.
Performer: Rachel Smith
Rachel Smith told her first story in front of a live audience in 2012. From there, the threads of storytelling wound themselves around her until she became the producer, workshop host, podcast producer and international storyteller.
Spot 4 - Dear Dickhead
Venue: La Galerie, G/F, 74 Hollywood Road, Central Organizer: Alliance Francaise
Title: Dear Dickhead Author: Virginie Despentes Publisher (French): éditions Grasset Publisher (eng): Quercus Publishing Translator: Frank Wynne Year: Original French Edition: 2022 English version: 2024
Dear Dickhead
Rebecca is in her fifties, a beautiful and successful actress past the peak of her career. Oscar is 35, a moderately well-known author who spends his time listening to rap music and trying to write a new novel. They were both nursed on the idea of the tortured artist and are experts in drug addiction, but they feel they may have to change their habits.
Zoé is a feminist in her late twenties. She wants neither to forgive nor to forget. She is addicted to social media, and that is where she spends all her time.
The three of them are not reliable. They are loud, opinionated and vulnerable. Until a friendship falls upon them and forces them to lay down their arms.
Performer: Angela Yu
Angela Yu (born 2003) is a poet born and raised in Hong Kong. At 17 years old, she published her first book in Chinese but now writes primarily in English and French. She is the author of 不反叛通知書, Juvie, Psycho in Paradise, and L'encyclopédie des parasites. When not writing, Angela enjoys drawing, tending to her CD collection, and brushing up on her heritage languages: Japanese and Shanghainese.
