Monday, 14, 2024, Romanian-Swiss author Dana Grigorcea will be guest on the Blue Sofa at the Pierre Werner Institute in Luxembourg where she will present her new novel “Das Gewicht eines Vogels beim Fliegen” (The Weight of a Bird in Flight, Penguin Verlag). The conversation will be moderated by Luxembourg author Samuel Hamen
Dana Grigorcea was born in Bucharest in 1979, she is a Germanist and Dutchist and has lived with her family in Zurich for many years. The Romanian-Swiss author's works have been translated into several languages and have received numerous awards such as the Ingeborg Bachmann/3sat Award. Her novel "Die nicht sterben” (Those Who Never Die) won the 2022 Swiss Book Prize and was longlisted for the 2021 German Book Prize. Dana Grigorcea is a recipient of the Romanian Order of Cultural Merit with the rank of Knight.
© Mardiana Sani
Penguin Verlag
In 1926, full of hope and longing, the ambitious young sculptor Constantin Avis moves to New York. A famous gallery owner wants to take him under his wing and facilitate his great breakthrough in this city of dreams. Constantin floats through his new life buoyed by an exciting new love affair, and the prospect of success – but threatens to lose touch with reality. How far can his art really take him?
A whole century later, this is the question that Dora sets out to answer. It is early springtime on the Ligurian coast, and she is working on a novel about Constantin. She has moved here together with her son and a nanny, to find the peace that usually eludes her in her everyday life as an artist and mother. But the deeper she dives, the more her own story becomes intertwined with Constantin’s. Eventually, she realises that she can answer the sculptor’s questions only with her own life.
An exceptionally charming tale of the unbreakable bond between art and life – as light as a feather, and yet so powerful that its thoughts will linger with you for a long time.
Samuel Hamen, born in Luxembourg City in 1988, is a writer, literary critic for Deutschlandfunk and ZEIT Online, among others, and president of the Luxembourgish writers' association A:LL. His first novel “V wéi wreckt, w wéi Vitess” was published by Éditions Guy Binsfeld in 2018. Most recently, he was awarded the Luxembourg Book Prize 2020 and an annual scholarship from the Baden-Württemberg Art Foundation.
© Philippe Matsas, MSB
Monday, October 14, 2024 | 7 p.m.
Institut Pierre Werner
28 rue Münster
2160 Luxembourg
Available as a recording afterwards
Tickets:
10,- € (red. 5,- €, with Kulturpass 1,50 €) available via this link
Event language:
German/ Recordings with English subtitles available
In cooperation with:
Institut Pierre Werner Luxembourg