Jean-Pierre Minaudier

Jean-Pierre Minaudier (1961) is a French historian and translator. He is an Estophile who has various links to Estonian culture and literature. He has written books on Estonia – in 2007, he published Histoire de l’Estonie et de la nation estonienne but his work as a translator is perhaps the most significant. His two most important translations are the third volume of Anton Hansen Tammsaare’s Tõde ja õigus series (Jours d’émeutes), published in 2009, and Andrus Kivirähk’s novel L’homme qui savait la langue des serpents, published in 2013. Kivirähk’s book became a literary phenomenon in France, but this has overshadowed the fact that Minaudier won prizes in Estonia as well as France for his translation – including the award of the Estonian Cultural Endowment for the best translation of Estonian fiction into a foreign language. However, at the festival, Minaudier will not be talking only translation, but also his book Poésie du gérondif, which explores his great passion, the grammar of various languages. Minaudier will talk about languages and their structures with translator and writer Indrek Koff.