Jean-Claude Mourlevat
Jean-Claude Mourlevat (1952) is a French author. French and Estonian readers know him mostly as a children’s author – his story The Pull of the Ocean (Estonian translation by Indrek Koff) places the story of Tom Thumb in quite realistic modern context, where the action is set off by seven brothers escaping from a violent home. Last year, The Pull of the Ocean won the Tower of Babel Award for translated children’s fiction in Estonia. However, Mourlevat will attend festival HeadRead not only as a children’s author but also as an adult author, because his 2013 collection of short stories entitled Silhouette will also be published in Estonian (translated by Indrek Koff). He taught German for five years, became a performer with a successful one man show, and directed Brecht, Cocteau and Shakespeare before turning to writing full time. He writes, he has said, because he can’t sing. More seriously, he writes to make sense of the world. His hugely popular novels are realistic adventures, set in powerfully imagined worlds, with dashes of science fiction, fantasy, magic and always humour, affirming the power of humanity and solidarity against violence and stupidity. Ten short stories form a whole, describing the inevitable contradiction between people’s good intentions and the devious fate, and expressing the sobering idea that while humans hope and plan, gods laugh or stay silent. He taught German for five years, became a performer with a successful one man show, and directed Brecht, Cocteau and Shakespeare before turning to writing full time. He writes, he has said, because he can’t sing. More seriously, he writes to make sense of the world. His hugely popular novels are realistic adventures, set in powerfully imagined worlds, with dashes of science fiction, fantasy, magic and always humour, affirming the power of humanity and solidarity against violence and stupidity.
You can meet Jean-Claude Mourlevat on several occasions at our festival: on Friday, 29 May at 3 pm, he will take part in the discussion on young adult literature with Sarah B. Elfgren and Mats Strandberg at the Estonian Writers’ Union and on Saturday, 30 May at 5 pm, he will talk to translator Indrek Koff at the same venue.