We are thrilled to welcome highly acclaimed author Andrea Grill and the renowned translator Tess Lewis at the ACF London, presenting Grill’s latest novel Cherubino. Join us for this bilingual reading and book discussion, hosted by Andrea Capovilla (Ingeborg Bachmann Centre), offering you a fascinating insight into the novel as well as their creative processes.
The event is organised in cooperation with the Ingeborg Bachmann Centre for Austrian Literature & Culture at the Institute of Modern Languages Research.
Cherubino, nominated for the 2019 German Book Prize, explores Mozart’s "Le nozze di Figaro" and Nicholas Maw’s opera "Sophie’s Choice". Cherubino charts the pregnancy, relationships and career trajectory of the 39-year-old mezzo soprano Iris Schiffer. Whilst pregnant, she makes her debut as Cherubino in Mozart’s "Le nozze di Figaro "and later rehearses the main part in Nicholas Maw’s opera "Sophie’s Choice". The experience of pregnancy and the dialogue with the unborn child is intertwined with her exploration of her operatic roles and the problems of combining work and parenthood.
Andrea Grill was born in Bad Ischl in 1975, and is a biologist, poet, novelist and translator from Albanian, Italian and Dutch. She also studied evolutionary biology and incorporated her research into texts such as Schmetterlinge. Ein Portrait and her 2015 novel Das Paradies des Doktor Caspari. Grill’s most recent award is the 2021 Anton Wildgans Prize. She lives in Vienna.
Tess Lewis is a widely acclaimed translator from German and French, including works by Austrian authors Peter Handke, Alois Hotschnig, Julya Rabinowich, and Doron Rabinovici. Her awards include the 2017 PEN Translation Award for her translation of Maja Haderlap’s novel Angel of Oblivion and a Guggenheim Fellowship. Her essays and reviews have appeared in a number of publications including Granta, Bookforum, and The Los Angeles Review of Books. She is Advisory Editor for The Hudson Review and co-curator of the Festival Neue Literatur, New York City’s annual festival of German-language literature in English. In 2022, she holds a Berlin Prize Fellowship at the American Academy in Berlin.
Please note: Tickets are limited and need to be booked on our website in advance. You will not be able to attend the event without a pre-booked ticket.
We would like to inform you that all guests must show proof of either a negative Covid-19 lateral flow test (not older than 24 hours), full vaccination status or recent recovery from Covid-19. We ask you also to follow social distancing, wear a mask and sanitise your hands. Please do not visit the ACF if you have Covid symptoms.
