Ève Guerra introduces her new novel REPATRIATION

Ève Guerra is a novelist, poet, journalist and teacher. She grew up in Congo Brazzaville, which she fled during the civil war. She is now a teacher of Latin, ancient Greek and French, a columnist for Lire and the author of a collection of poetry. Repatriation is Ève’s first novel, which has had a remarkable reception in France, winning the prize for the best first novel by Transfuge, as well as the Prix Goncourt for the first novel (France’s most prestigious literary prize). It has also been shortlisted for a dozen national and international literary prizes.

Annabella Morelli is twenty-three years old, dreams of becoming a poet and lives in Lyon, far from Congo-Brazzaville where she was born. The daughter of a Franco-Italian worker, and a Congolese girl who became a mother too young, Annabella remembers a happy childhood until one Christmas, at the age of seven, her father's anger exploded, and her mother left the family home.

When she learns of his death in Cameroon, her world collapses for the second time and in her desperate attempt to repatriate her father’s body to France, Annabella is forced to confront the family secrets, lies and deep trauma at the heart of her existence.