Author on Tour: Mohamed Mbougar Sarr
Books & Ideas
(c) Camille Farah Lenain
Author Mohamed Mbougar Sarr will be in the United States to promote the release of his novel The Most Secret Memory of Men (trans. by Lara Vergnaud, Other Press, 2023).
About Mohamed Mbougar Sarr
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr was born in Dakar, Senegal, in 1990. He studied literature and philosophy at the School for Advanced Studies in Social Sciences (EHESS) in Paris. In 2021, Sarr became the first writer from sub-Saharan Africa to be awarded France’s oldest and most prestigious literary prize, the Prix Goncourt, for his fourth novel The Most Secret Memory Of Men (trans. by Lara Vergnaud, Other Press). In this gripping literary mystery and coming-of-age novel, Sarr unravels the fascinating life of a maligned Black author, based on Yambo Ouologuem. The text has been widely acclaimed: David Diop called it a “magnificent novel that also offers a profound reflection on the resonance of literature in our lives” and Leïla Slimani commented that: “a love letter to literature, this novel is already a classic and it will haunt you”.
About The Most Secret Memory of Men
(trans. by Lara Vergnaud, Other Press, 2023)
A literary mystery in the same vein as Bolaño’s Savage Detectives, The Most Secret Memory of Men is a coming-of-age novel that unravels the fascinating life of a maligned Black author, based on the true story and mysterious life of Yambo Ouologuem.
In 2018, Diégane Latyr Faye, a young Senegalese writer in Paris, discovers a legendary book from the 1930s, The Labyrinth of Inhumanity. No one knows what became of its author, once hailed as the “Black Rimbaud,” after the book caused a scandal. Enthralled by this mystery, Diégane decides to search for T.C. Elimane, going down a path that will force him to confront the great tragedies of history, from colonialism to the Holocaust. From Senegal to Argentina to France, will he get to the truth at the center of the maze?
The Most Secret Memory of Men has been released in the United States in September 2023.
Program
Mohamed Mbougar Sarr will be on tour in the US in October 2023.
His public program will include:
- Monday, Oct 23: conversation @ Georgia Institute of Technology (Atlanta, GA) – event in French & English;
- Monday, Oct 23: talk @ Emory University (Atlanta, GA) – event in English;
- Tuesday, Oct 24: roundtable @ Duke University (Durham, NC) – event in French & English;
- Wednesday, Oct 25: conversation with Souleymane Bachir Diagne @ Columbia University (New York, NY) – event in English;
- Wednesday, Oct 25: conversation @ Albertine (New York, NY) – event in English;
- Friday, Oct 27: talk @ Alliance Française Chicago (Chicago, IL) – event in French & English;
- Saturday, Oct 28: talk @ Loyola University (Chicago, IL) – event in French & English;
- Monday, Oct 30: talk @ Washington University (St. Louis, MO) – event in English;
- Tuesday, Oct 31: talk @ Ohio State University (Columbus, OH) – event in English;
- Wednesday, Nov 1st: reading & conversation @ Boston University (Boston, MA) – event in English;
- Thursday, Nov 2 : talk @ University of California Berkeley (Berkeley, CA) – event in English;
- Friday, Nov 3: conversation @ University of Southern California (Los Angeles, CA) – event in English.
For more information, please email Valentine Richet at valentine.richet@villa-albertine.org.
