Centre Culturel d'Uccle - Belgium
Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt will be presenting his new book The Revenge of Forgiveness, on Wednesday 4 October at 7pm.
Éric-Emmanuel Schmitt will be presenting his new book The Revenge of Forgiveness, on Wednesday 4 October at 7pm.
The event, Enlivrons-nous ("Let’s Talk Books") with Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt and The Revenge of Forgiveness.
Four lives, four tales, in which Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, with a formidable sense for the psychological thriller, explores the most violent and secret feelings that govern our lives. Interviewed by Jacqueline Rousseaux, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt reveals the humanity that resists and subsists in people, when life leads them into envy, perversion, indifference and crime.
Over two decades, Eric-Emmanuel Schmitt, a playwright, novelist and film director who has also written short stories and non-fiction, has become one of the most widely read and performed French authors in the world. Acclaimed by both audiences and critics, his plays have won Molière awards and the Grand Prix du théâtre de l’Académie française. His books have been translated into 45 languages and over 50 countries regularly perform his plays. Today, he is the most studied writer in secondary schools. With continual new productions and revivals in state and private theatres all over the world, his plays now form part of the contemporary repertoire.
The star of the rentrée littéraire (the new literary season)
“EES” will undoubtedly be one of the stars of this autumn, which marks the new literary season in the French-speaking world, and that is on more than one count. Firstly, he is on the jury of the Goncourt Prize, and secondly, because of his new book The Revenge of Forgiveness, a series of four novellas of terrible gravity, which share the common theme of forgiveness. The first entitled "The Barbarin sisters" tells of twin sisters who are psychologically poles apart, one supremely jealous, the other, infintely forgiving. The second story, "Mademoiselle Butterfly", tells of William, a teenager on holiday with his friends, who takes up a challenge to sleep with Mandine, a peasant girl with learning difficulties. A few months later, he learns that Mandine is expecting a child. The third in the series, which gives its title to the book, is the story of Élise, a young mother who, for many years, has been visiting in prison the man who raped and murdered her daughter. Her aim is to understand why he committed his crimes and make him repent. Finally, the last story in the collection, "Draw me a plane", tells of an old man who, every day, reads Saint-Exupéry’s famous book, The Little Prince, to the little girl next door. Their mutual friendship brings to light the old man’s deepest, darkest secrets. This is a marvellous collection of stories, which lays bare the human soul and offers profound food for thought on two seemingly contradictory themes: revenge or forgiveness ?