Adeline Dieudonné: Author Q&A on Instagram Live

Real Life is a fierce and poetic debut by author Adeline Dieudonné on surviving the wilderness of family life. Translated from the French by Roland Glasser. This event will include a short reading, a moderated author Q&A, and an audience Q&A, with both the author and the translator. This event is co-hosted with Solid State Books in Washington, DC. Join us on Instagram with @solidstatedc. Event in English and French.

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About the Author

Adeline Dieudonné is a Belgian author and lives in Brussels. Real Life, her debut novel, was published in France in Autumn 2018 and has since been awarded most of the major French literary prizes: the prestigious Prix du Roman FNAC, the Prix Rossel, the Prix Renaudot des Lycéens, the Prix Goncourt―Le Choix de la Belgique, the Prix des Étoiles du Parisien, the Prix Première Plume, and the Prix Filigrane, a French prize for a work of high literary quality with wide appeal. Dieudonné also performs as a stand-up comedian.

About the Book

At home there are four bedrooms: one for her, one for her little brother Sam, one for her parents, and one for the carcasses. Her father is a big-game hunter, a powerful predator, and her mother is submissive to her violent husband’s demands. The young narrator spends the days with Sam, playing in the shells of cars dumped for scrap and listening out for the melody of the ice-cream truck, until a brutal accident shatters their world. The uncompromising pen of Adeline Dieudonné wields flashes of brilliance as she brings her characters to life in a world that is both dark and sensual. This breathtaking debut is a sharp and funny coming-of-age tale in which reality and fantasy collide.

Praise

“Transforming the traditional coming-of-age novel, Adeline Dieudonné’s successful first work is a captivating, unnerving take on emancipation and the hope of escaping violence.” —France-Amérique

“Dieudonné’s startling debut tackles dark themes with grace, wit, and sincerity. A deeply disturbing, furiously tender, and darkly comedic debut.” —Kirkus Reviews

“A magnificent heroine of freedom and intelligence” —BRUNO CORTY, Le Figaro

“Bitter, raw and fast-paced: a tale that’s filled with a hunger for life” —ALAIN LORFÉVRE, La Libre Belgique

About the Translator

Roland Glasser was born in London, studied in Aberystwyth, and lived in Paris for a decade, pursuing twin careers in translation and the performing arts. His translation of Fiston Mwanza Mujila’s Tram 83 won the Etisalat Prize for Literature 2016 and was longlisted for the Man Booker International Prize and the Best Translated Book Award. Authors he has translated include Anne Cuneo, Martin Page, Marc Pouyet, Julien Aranda, and Stéphane Garnier. Roland is a co-founder of The Starling Bureau—a London-based collective of literary translators bringing the world’s best books to publishers, and providing related expertise and resources.

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