Dublin Festival of History
We are delighted to present, in cooperation with the Dublin Festival of History and the French Embassy, a reading and discussion of the English translation of the prose poem
Epic Annette by
Anne Weber (published by The Indigo Press). The book, which won the German Book Prize 2020, was originally published both in German (
Annette, ein Heldinnenepos) and French
(Annette, une épopée). Discussing the title will be author Anne Weber and translator
Tess Lewis.
Epic Annette is the extraordinary true story of Annette Beaumanoir: brilliant and fierce, she was a medical student living in a world at war who, aged 19, joined the French Resistance and saved the lives of two Jewish children in Paris on the eve of their deportation to the camps.
As a doctor and mother devoted to justice and equality, Annette was later found guilty of treachery for supporting the Algerian FLN in France and was sentenced to ten years in prison. The story of her dramatic escape, trial in absentia and decades in exile, separated from her children, resembles that of the great heroes whose love for individuals had to compete with their destiny and love of humanity.
Anne Weber is a German-French author, translator into both French and German and self-translator. She studied in Paris and has worked for several publishers. Anne started writing and publishing in French, but immediately translated her first book
Ida invente la poudre into German as
Ida erfindet das Schießpulver. Since then, she has written each of her books in French and German.
In 2005 she received the 3Sat award at the Festival of German Language Literature. For her translation of Pierre Michon's work she received the Europäischer Übersetzerpreis Offenburg. She was awarded the 2020 German Book Prize for
Annette, ein Heldinnenepos which has sold more than 200,000 copies.
Tess Lewis has received many accolades and awards, including two PEN Translates grants and has been shortlisted for British prizes including the Schlegel-Tieck award (2019 for Lutz Seiler's
Kruso, published by Scribe) and the Oxford/Weidenfeld Translation Prize.
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