Leila Slimani

Leila Slimani is one of the most outstanding writers of contemporary French literature. Born in Rabat in 1981, with a Moroccan father and French-Algerian mother, she studied in the French Lycée in Rabat, the Paris Institute of Political Studies, and the Paris Business School where she specialised in the media. After working for some years as a journalist in publications including L’Express and Jeune Afrique, she decided to devote herself full-time to literature where she reflects on themes like sexuality, feminism, and freedom in all its forms. She has published several novels, the first being, Adèle (published in Spanish as En el jardín del ogro, by Cabaret Voltaire, 2019), followed by Lullaby (published in Catalan as Una dolça cançó by Bromera and Cabaret Voltaire, 2017), which was awarded the Prix Goncourt in 2016. She is also author of the graphic novel Paroles d’honneur (Les Arenes, 2017) and the essay Sex and Lies (published in Spanish as Sexo y mentiras: La vida sexual en Marruecos by Cabaret Voltaire, 2017). In 2017 she was appointed personal representative of the French president to the Organisation internationale de la Francophonie. In her latest novel, In the Country of Others, Slimani explores the effects of colonialism and the feeling of otherness in a story based on the experiences of her maternal grandparents.