The Most Secret Memory of Men
ABOUT
THE BOOK
Paris, 2018. Diégane Latyr Faye, a young Senegalese writer, discovers a legendary book titled The Maze of Inhumanity. It has an immediate hold over him. No one knows what happened to the author, T.C. Elimane, who was accused of plagiarism, his reputation destroyed by the critics. Obsessed with discovering the truth about Elimane’s disappearance, Faye weaves past and present, countries and continents, following the author’s labyrinthine trail from Senegal to Argentina and France and confronting the great tragedies of history.
The original edition of Mohamed Mbougar Sarr’s novel The Most Secret Memory of Men (La plus secrète mémoire des hommes) was co-published on August 19, 2021, by the French publisher Éditions Philippe Rey and the Senegalese publishing house Éditions Jimsaan
ABOUT
THE TRANSLATOR Lara
Vergnaud
Lara Vergnaud is a translator of prose, creative nonfiction, and scholarly works from the French. She is the recipient of two PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants and a French Voices Grand Prize, and has been nominated for the National Translation Award. Her recent translations include The Most Secret Memory of Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr (Other Press, 2023) and Demoiselles of Numidia by Mohamed Leftah (Other Press, 2023). She lives in France.
Lara Vergnaud is a translator of prose, creative nonfiction, and scholarly works from the French. She is the recipient of two PEN/Heim Translation Fund Grants and a French Voices Grand Prize, and has been nominated for the National Translation Award. Her recent translations include The Most Secret Memory of Men by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr (Other Press, 2023) and Demoiselles of Numidia by Mohamed Leftah (Other Press, 2023). She lives in France.
NOMINATING LIBRARY COMMENTS
Very good book which won the Prix Goncourt