Reading | Bannmeilen - Anne Weber

On February 3, the German writer and translator Anne Weber will be coming to the Centre Culturel Français in cooperation with the University campus Freiburg to read from her novel "Bannmeilen".

Where the city ends and the suburbs begin is clearly marked in Paris by the Périphérique, which Anne Weber's narrator has hardly ever thought of crossing. For what is there, in the disreputable banlieues, apart from a network of rails, expressways and highways, between which warehouses, huge supermarkets and building sites and millions of people are wedged? Apart from the notorious hardship, violence and poverty? But when her old friend Thierry suggests that she accompany him on a film about the suburbs of the Seine-Saint-Denis department, which are undergoing a radical transformation ahead of the 2024 Olympic Games, she has to admit that she has been blind to the immediate vicinity for decades. There is, for example, the Muslim cemetery in Bobigny, surrounded by piles of scrap metal, where an Algerian Olympic champion from the 1920s is buried; the two circular social housing buildings in Noisy-le-Grand, which face each other like gigantic Camemberts; and a thousand other places that tell of colonialism and suffering, of hope and progress. Over time, Thierry himself also reveals himself to be part of this contradictory world, previously hidden from view.

In Bannmeilen, Anne Weber opens herself up to the unfamiliar and different in our midst with quiet wit and great powers of observation, creating not only the image of a complex friendship, but also the story of a multi-layered society in the as yet unseen suburb of lovers.

Anne Weber, born in Offenbach in 1964, has lived in Paris as a freelance author and translator since 1983. She has translated from German into French and writes her own books in both German and French. Her works have been awarded the Heimito von Doderer Literature Prize, the 3sat Prize, the Kranichstein Literature Prize, the Johann Heinrich Voß Prize and the Solothurn Literature Prize 2024, among others. Anne Weber was awarded the German Book Prize 2020 for her book Annette, ein Heldinnenepos.

Monday, February 3 | 7:00 pm
CCFF
Admission: € 11 | € 7
Language: D/F
In cooperation with: Romance Department University of Freiburg, German Department University of Freiburg, French Center of the University campus Freiburg