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Éric Vuillard: The Order of the Day

Illustration
  • Where: Václav Havel Library, Ostrovní 13, Prague 110 00
  • When: March 7, 2019, 19:30 – 21:00

Evening with Éric Vuillard, whose novel The Order of the Day is just coming out in Czech on the Argo imprint in a translation by Tomáš Havel.

Éric Vuillard is a French novelist, filmmaker and scriptwriter whose books chiefly focus on events that have altered the course of history. His first novel Conquistadors, an account of the conquering of Peru by Francisco Pizzarro, was published in 2009. It was followed by La Bataille d’Occident in 2012, Congo that same year, Tristesse de la terre: Une histoire de de Buffalo Bill in 2014 and 14 juillet in 2016. All of his works are gripping and fascinating and based on thorough study of the historical facts. Vuillard is the recipient of numerous awards, including the most important of all in the French-speaking world, the Prix Goncourt, for The Order of the Day (2017).

The Order of the Day is a work of stunning force rooted in simplicity. Vuillard describes Europe’s journey to the abyss via two historical moments. The first is 20 February 1933, when at a meeting the Hermann Göring and Adolf Hitler, who has become chancellor just a month earlier, the 42 most influential German industrialists pledge without the slightest resistance to finance the Nazi party’s campaign in the forthcoming elections. The second moment, which the book explores, is the Anschluss under which Austria is attached to Germany on 12 March 1938 on the basis of an agreement made between Hitler and Austria’s chancellor Kurt von Schuschnigg exactly a month previously in Vienna. 

The evening will be hosted by Petr Janyška, a translator, journalist and former Czech ambassador to France. 

Organised by the Václav Havel Library in cooperation with Prague’s Institut français and the Argo publishing house. Simultaneous translation from French provided.

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