French+ MIT / French Library Author Series: Emily Eakin, Camille de Peretti, Elisa Shua Dusapin
The Frenchmen: French Theory from Paris to America – Emily Eakin in conversation with Bruno Perreau
Tuesday, October 6, 2026 – 6:30 PM – 8 PM
Leading critic and essayist Emily Eakin joins Bruno Perreau, Cynthia L. Reed Professor of French Studies at MIT, in conversation about her acclaimed new book The Frenchmen: Or, My Life in Theory. Blending memoir, biography, and intellectual history, The Frenchmen: Or, My Life in Theory intertwines Eakin’s youthful fascination with French theorists including Jacques Derrida, Michel Foucault, Roland Barthes, Louis Althusser, Gilles Deleuze, and Jacques Lacan with the story the rise of French theory in American intellectual and cultural life. The author talk will be followed by an audience Q&A, reception, and book signing. Copies of The Frenchmen will be available for purchase onsite from the Harvard Book Store.
Portrait of an Unknown Woman: From a Stolen Klimt to a Literary Mystery – An Evening with Camille de Peretti
Thursday, October 29, 2026 – 6:30 PM -7:30 PM
Author Camille de Peretti joins Benoit Landon for a discussion about her novel, The Portrait of an Unknown Woman, a fascinating imagining of the life of the woman behind Gustav Klimt’s mysterious 1910 painting. Moving from turn-of-the-century Vienna to Manhattan during the Great Depression, from Texas in the 1980s to contemporary Italy, de Peretti blends art, history, family secrets, disappearances, and thwarted loves. The author talk will be followed by an audience Q&A, reception, and book signing.
The Old Fire: On Writing, Memory, and Belonging – An Evening with Elisa Shua Dusapin
Monday, November 16, 2026 – 6:00 PM -7:30 PM
Join National Book Award winner Elisa Shua Dusapin for a conversation on The Old Fire, her acclaimed new novel about two estranged sisters, a childhood home, and all that remains unspoken between them. Exploring the complicated bonds between sisters, the weight of family memory, and the myriad ways we communicate beyond words, the novel asks whether we can ever really go home again. The author talk will be followed by an audience Q&A, book signing, and reception.