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ALEXANDRIA, Va. — The Alexandria-Caen Sister City Committee and Old Town Books will host a French Book Club at 7 p.m. Friday, Aug. 21, at the Lloyd House, 220 N. Washington St.
The event is free and open to the public, but space is limited and registration is required in advance.
The selection is "The Most Secret Memory of Men" by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, translated by Lara Vergnaud. The novel won the 2021 Prix Goncourt, France's most prominent literary award, and Sarr became the first sub-Saharan African writer to receive it.
The book follows Diégane Latyr Faye, a young Senegalese writer in Paris who comes across a legendary 1930s novel, "The Labyrinth of Inhumanity," and sets out to learn what became of its author. T.C. Elimane was once hailed as the "Black Rimbaud" and vanished after the book caused a scandal. The search pulls Diégane through colonialism and the Holocaust.
The club is meant to draw readers toward non-Anglophone writers, particularly those of the French diaspora. Buying the book at Old Town Books is not required to attend, though the shop notes that purchases help sustain its free literary programming. Attendees agree to the store's code of conduct.
The Alexandria-Caen Sister City Committee coordinates the relationship between Alexandria and Caen, France, one of the city's sister cities. The Lloyd House, an 18th-century building on North Washington Street, is operated by the Office of Historic Alexandria.
