On April 24, join us for an exceptional evening with author David Diop and New York Times editor and writer Joumana Khatib as they discuss David Diop’s latest novel, Beyond the Door of No Return (trans. by Sam Taylor, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023), shortlisted for the 2023 National Book Award for Translated Literature.

Paris, 1806. The renowned botanist Michel Adanson lies on his deathbed. The masterwork, which he dedicated his life to, remains incomplete. As he passes away, the last word to escape his lips is a woman’s name: Maram. The key to this mysterious woman’s identity is Andanson’s unpublished memoir of the years he spent in Senegal.  

Drawing on the richness and lyricism of Senegal’s oral traditions, David Diop takes the readers, throughout his novel, on an exciting journey into the Senegalese bush and tells us a love story like few others. 

In English. Free with RSVP: Click here for tickets. 

This event is co-organized with Villa Albertine and is a part of the Authors on Tour program. David Diop’s 2024 US tour is made possible by Villa Albertine. 

DAVID DIOP was born in Paris and raised in Senegal. He is the Head of the Arts, Languages, and Literature Department at the University of Pau, where his research includes such topics as eighteenth-century French literature and European representation of Africa in the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries. In 2021, David Diop received the International Booker Prize and the Los Angeles Times Book Prize for his second novel, At Night All Blood Is Black (trans. by Anna Moschovakis, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2020). His latest book, Beyond the Door of No Return (trans. by Sam Taylor, Farrar, Straus and Giroux, 2023) was shortlisted for the 2023 National Book Award. 

JOUMANA KHATIB is an editor and writer at The New York Times Book Review, and began her career at The Times over a decade ago. She writes a weekly newsletter about publishing and literature, and is a frequent guest on the Book Review‘s podcast.

Photo credits: © Eric Traversié