Mohamed Mbougar Sarr and Kathrine Nedrejord
In Paris, Senegalese author Diégane Faye has just published his first novel to modest praise, and he feels stuck in his writing. But when he by chance discovers a book by a certain T. C. Elimane – another Senegalese writer – he is deeply moved, both by the novel and by the man behind it. Who was Elimane? The Senegalese man nicknamed «the Black Rimbaud» was declared a genius and accused of plagiarism before vanishing without a trace.
This begins Faye’s search for the writer and man Elimane. Through the many stories and people he encounters along the way, Faye is brought ever closer to Elimane, to the underbelly of French literary history and to the power of literature itself.
With The Most Secret Memory of Men, Mohamed Mbougar Sarr has written a labyrinth of a novel: The story keeps unfurling in new directions, and new voices are incorporated into this rich, Roberto Bolaño-inspired novel, which earned Sarr the prestigious Goncourt prize as the first Sub-Saharan African writer.
Among Sarr’s many enthusiastic readers is author Kathrine Nedrejord. Like Sarr, she is also interested in how the power balance between former colonizers and colonized continue in our time, particularly in the Sami history in Norway. Her latest novel, Forbryter og straff (“Criminal and Punishment”) is nominated for the Nordic Council’s Literature Prize. At the House of Literature, Nedrejord will join Sarr for a conversation about repression and colonization, about the search for history and the role of literature.
The conversation will be in English.