Lesung und Gespräch mit Gaëlle Bélem: „Die seltenste Frucht“

In the organizer's words:

In her novel biography, Gaëlle Bélem tells the story of the Creole slave Edmond Albius, who lived on the French-colonized Île Bourbon in the 19th century and achieved amazing things: At the age of 12, he invented a process for pollinating vanilla, which was subsequently cultivated all over the world and celebrated as the most popular of all flavors.

The author, who has won awards for her dazzling and humorous language and the authenticity of her characters, focuses on the history of her homeland, La Réunion. It was characterized by racism and the oppression of black people, whose talents and successes were systematically denied. Edmond is their representative: Many became rich from the rarest fruit, he died in poverty.

Julia Braun conducts the conversation with the author in French and translates it into German. Gudrun Honke will read excerpts from the novel.

Gaëlle Bélem, born in 1984 in Saint-Benoit on La Réunion, is a French author, teacher and journalist. Her debut novel "Un monstre est là, derrière la porte" was awarded the Grand Prix du Roman Métis, and its English translation was longlisted for the International Booker Prize 2025. "The Rarest Fruit" was included in the New York Times' list of the 100 most important books of 2025. Gaëlle Bélem lives and works on La Réunion and explores the social realities and cultural identity of her homeland in her works.
Julia Braun studied literary translation, Romance studies and cultural studies in Düsseldorf, Martinique and La Réunion with a focus on Creole literatures.

Gudrun Honke is an editor and translator. She has translated novels by Patrice Nganang, Scholastique Mukasonga, Bessora and Hemley Boum from French.

Price information:

Free admission - a donation is requested: https://afrikanische-perspektiven.de/spenden/