Neige Sinno in conversation with Lauren Elkin at Institute Français London

17 Queensberry Pl, South Kensington, London SW7 2DT, United Kingdom
United Kingdom
+44 20 7871 3515

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Exploring Literature, Memory, and the Power of Words

Join acclaimed author Neige Sinno in conversation with writer, essayist, and translator Lauren Elkin.

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 Lauren Elkin, author of Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art and Flâneuse and translator of Simone de Beauvoir’s previously unpublished novel The Inseparables.

The evening will conclude with a book signing, with copies available for purchase onsite through our partner bookshop, Librairie La Page.

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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.

Lauren Elkin is a writer, essayist, and translator. Her notable works include Art Monsters: Unruly Bodies in Feminist Art and Flâneuse, which was recognised by The New York Times Book Review and was a finalist for the PEN/Diamonstein-Spielvogel Award. Her essays on art, literature, and culture have appeared in the London Review of Books, Harper’s Bazaar, and Le Monde, among others. An accomplished translator, she recently translated Simone de Beauvoir’s previously unpublished novel The Inseparables. Her latest novel, Scaffolding, is forthcoming. After two decades in Paris, she now resides in London.