Reading Mathias Énard "Dance of Betrayal" November 14, 2024

Reading in German and French

Host: Torsten König
German voice: Hans-Werner Leupelt, Staatsschauspiel Dresden

In his new novel, Goncourt Prize winner Mathias Énard revisits his central theme—violence—and interweaves the present and the past through two narrative strands.

On the eve of September 11, 2001, a group of academics gathers on a Havel riverboat to celebrate a gala in honor of Paul Heudeber—a great mathematician and poet invented by Énard. Heudeber survived the Buchenwald concentration camp and chose to live in the GDR after the war, while his great love went to the West. The second narrative strand tells the story of a deserter in an unnamed war who seeks refuge in a mountain hut.

Mathias Énard, born in 1972 in Niort (western France), now lives in Barcelona—after extended stays in the Middle East—where he teaches Arabic at the Autonomous University of Barcelona. His novels, including *Zone* (2008) and *Compass* (2015), have won numerous awards.

When? November 14, 2024, 7:30–9:00 p.m.
Where? Central Library in the Kulturpalast | Event Room, 1st Floor – Schloßstraße 2, 01067 Dresden

Students at TU Dresden receive free admission upon presentation of a valid student ID.

Photo Gallery: Reading Mathias Énard, November 14, 2024