In the Name of the Father: Conversation with Éric Chacour and Xavier Le Clerc

Canadian author born to Egyptian parents, Éric Chacour, and French-Algerian novelist, Xavier Le Clerc, will discuss their latest UK publications, What I Know About You and A Man With No Title.

In his multi-awarded novel What I Know About You, Éric Chacour tells the searing tale of a devastating love that oscillates between Egypt and Montreal. In a small Levantine Christian family in late-twentieth century Cairo, Tarek is destined to be a doctor like his father, marry and have children. Until Ali, a patient’s son, upends Tarek’s pre-determined fate. Forced into exile, Tarek wanders and reflects upon his decisions, piecing together a past which he only wants to forget.

Winning an English Pen Award, Xavier Le Clerc’s A Man With No Title is a son’s tribute to an enigmatic father, Mohand-Saïd Aït-Taleb, who lived a life ravaged by war and displacement. Mohand-Saïd’s journey from Kabylia to a metal factory in Normandy illustrates an identity in perpetual motion which finds inscription in literature. In A Man With No Title, this immigrant father filled with humility and acceptance becomes the central figure of a book that brings awareness to the experience of colonisation, war, self-sacrifice, work and above all, to oneself.

Éric Chacour and Xavier Le Clerc will discuss their books which both survey the liminal space between the past and the present via the intimacy of the individual.

The event will be followed by a book signing with the authors, whose books (in English and French) will be sold by La Page at the entrance.

£10 General Admission £8 Concession £5 Student
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