Jeanne: a night with novelist Arielle Burgdorf

"a clever, sexy, moving & playful novel about literary translation, control, language, & selfhood.” - Jen Calleja

"Sexy, sad, super smart. Written with a translator's complicated love of language and a flâneur's understanding that one can never go home. I loved this sleek and adventurous book." —Lindsay Lerman

We're thrilled to welcome author and literary translator Arielle Burgdorf to the bookshop for an excavation of their exquisite, experimental novel Jeanne.

A writer interested in the intersections of language, gender, sexuality, and art, Bergdorf brings all these to bear in fiction that makes "exhilarating connections across place, language, and identity" (Nate Lippens).

Join us for an evening exploring craft and language, translation and indie publishing, queer literature and sexy fiction - and much, much more.

The Book:

When Jean, a young translator of French and Russian, receives a mysterious commission, she leaps at the chance to escape her current life—and husband—and relocate to Montréal. Marriage has destroyed her sense of self, but work offers a way to rebuild it, as Jean slowly rediscovers her identity via a series of literary encounters (as well as lots of sex, drugs, and rock 'n' roll).

With nods to the Situationists and Oulipo, JEANNE is an experimental yet at the same time intensely readable novel about gender, alterity, and linguistic insecurity. Will translation always be seen as an act of betrayal? Or does one's willingness to speak through and with the other yield its own rewards?