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Join award-winning translator Jeffrey Zuckerman at Community Bookstore to celebrate the release of two novels by Mauritian authors that he’s translated from the French: Silence of the Chagos by Shenaz Patel and The Living Days by Ananda Devi (Feminist Press).

Based on the true, still-unfolding story of the expelled Chagossians' fight for their homeland, Silence of the Chagos is a powerful exploration of cultural identity, the concept of home, and above all the never-ending desire for justice. Shenaz Patel is a journalist and writer from the island of Mauritius, in the Indian Ocean. She is the author of several novels, plays, short stories, and children’s books. She was an IWP (International Writers Program) Honorary Fellow in the U.S. in 2016, and was a fellow at the W. E. B Du Bois Research Institute at the Hutchins Center at Harvard University in 2018.

A novel of post-9/11 London, The Living Days is a masterful dissection of racism, aging, and the perturbing nature of desire. Ananda Devi was born in Mauritius in 1957, notable for its confluence of diverse ethnic, cultural, and linguistic identities. She has published twelve novels as well as short stories and poetry, and was featured at the PEN World Voices Festival in New York in 2015. Her literary awards include the 2006 Prix des Cinq Continents de la Francophonie and the 2007 Prix Télévision Suisse Romande for Ève de ses décombres, as well as the 2010 Prix Louis-Guilloux and the 2012 Prix Mokanda for other works.

When: November 12, 2019 at 7 PM

Where: Community Bookstore, 143 7th Ave., Brooklyn, NY

Jeffrey Zuckerman is an award-winning translator from French of titles ranging from Jean Genet’s The Criminal Child to Ananda Devi’s Eve Out of Her Ruins.