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Exploring Literature, Memory, and the Power of Words

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Join acclaimed author Neige Sinno in conversation with writer and translator Adam Biles on 15 May, 7pm CEST.

Neige Sinno’s book Sad Tiger was showered with prizes, including the 2023 Prix Femina, the 2023 Goncourt des Lycéens and the Choix Goncourt UK in 2024. It is a deeply personal and haunting exploration of abuse, survival, and the ways in which literature can give shape to the unspeakable.

For Sinno, writing is both an act of resistance and a means of understanding. “Literature allows us to name the unspoken, to create meaning from pain,” she explains. Sad Tiger blends memoir and reflection, drawing readers into the complexities of memory and self-reconstruction. Influenced by French literary greats like Annie Ernaux and Marguerite Duras, Sinno crafts narratives that blur the boundaries between the personal and the universal. She sees writing as a way to confront difficult truths while maintaining the delicate balance between exposure and privacy.

Neige Sinno will be joined by writer Adam Biles, author of Feeding Time and Beasts of England. He is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company, from where he hosts their weekly podcast.

Free & open to all. Places limited. Arrive early to avoid disappointment. Most events take place on the first floor, which is accessible by stairs.

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Neige Sinno is a writer and translator, born in France in 1977. She lived in Mexico for 20 years and studied French, North American, and Latin American literature. She completed a doctoral thesis on contemporary North American short stories at the University of Aix-Marseille and pursued postdoctoral research at UNAM, Mexico, where she also taught literature and translation. She is the author of several works of fiction, including La vie des rats (La Tangente, 2007) and Le Camion (Christophe Lucquin, 2018), as well as the literary essay Lectores entre líneas: Roberto Bolaño, Ricardo Piglia y Sergio Pitol (Aldus, 2011), which won the Lya Kostakowsky Literary Essay Award. Published in 2023, Sad Tiger received widespread acclaim, winning numerous prestigious awards, including the 2023 Prix Femina, the Goncourt des Lycéens, the Prix Littéraire du Monde, and the Prix Les Inrockuptibles, as well as the Choix Goncourt UK in 2024.

Adam Biles is an English writer and translator based in Paris. He is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company, from where he hosts their weekly podcast. In 2022, he conceived and presented Friends of Shakespeare and Company read Ulysses—an epic, polyphonic celebration of James Joyce’s masterwork. Feeding Time, his first novel, was published by Galley Beggar Press in 2016, and was chosen by The Guardian as a Fiction Pick for 2016 and was a book of the year for The Observer, The Irish Times, The Millions and 3:AM Magazine. It was published by Editions Grasset in France in 2018 to great critical acclaim. His second novel, Beasts of England, will be published in September 2023 by Galley Beggar Press, and in 2025 by Editions Grasset. It was selected as a "2023 highlight" by The Guardian.

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