French Book Club

Join the Alexandria-Caen Sister City Committee and Old Town Books in celebrating French authors and literature! This special collaboration event is free but space is limited. Register in advance at Alexandriava.gov/Shop. This event is designed to encourage the exploration of non-Anglophone authors and books, especially those in the French diaspora.
Title:French Book Club
Date & Time:Friday, August 21, 2026 • 7-9 p.m.
Location:Lloyd House, 220 N. Washington St. (Map This)
Event Details:Join the Alexandria-Caen Sister City Committee and Old Town Books in celebrating French authors and literature!

This special collaboration event is free and open to the public, but space is limited so please register in advance at Alexandriava.gov/Shop. This event is designed to encourage the exploration of non-Anglophone authors and books, especially those in the French diaspora. While buying the book at Old Town Books is not required to attend, doing so helps keep their free literary programming sustainable! By attending an Old Town Books event, you are agreeing to their code of conduct.

About the book: The Most Secret Memory of Men holds the distinction of being the 2021 winner of the Prix Goncourt, France’s top literary award. Written by Mohamed Mbougar Sarr, the Goncourt’s first Sub-Saharan African winner, and translated by Lara Vergnaud, in this coming-of-age novel, Diégane Latyr Faye, a young Senegalese writer in Paris, discovers a legendary book from the 1930s, The Labyrinth of Inhumanity. No one knows what became of its author, once hailed as the “Black Rimbaud,” after the book caused a scandal. Enthralled by this mystery, Diégane decides to search for T.C. Elimane, going down a path that will force him to confront the great tragedies of history, from colonialism to the Holocaust. The Most Secret Memory of Men is an astonishing novel about the choice between living and writing, and the desire to transcend the divide between Africa and the West. Above all, it is an ode to literature and its timelessness.
Links:
Fees:Free
Tags:Book Discussion Group, Museums, Old & Historic Alexandria, Old Town, Sister Cities


For event details visit https://apps.alexandriava.gov/Calendar/?63323
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