Epic Annette

Overview

Could you put your beliefs before your family?

Epic Annette is the extraordinary true story of Annette Beaumanoir: brilliant and fierce, she was a medical student living in a world at war who, at nineteen years old, joined the French Resistance and saved the lives of two Jewish children in Paris on the eve of their deportation to the camps.

As a doctor and mother devoted to justice and equality, Annette was later found guilty of treachery for supporting the Algerian FLN in France and sentenced to ten years in prison.

The story of her dramatic escape, trial in absentia and decades in exile, separated from her children, resembles that of the great heroes whose love for individuals had to compete with their destiny and love of humanity. Annette will remain with you forever.

With this gripping personal tale of heroism and grief, author Anne Weber joins Homer in her ability to conjure a titan in an epic poem.

Reviews

‘Annette is a rare heroine whose fierce courage almost demands an unusual, and beautiful, account of her life. She stood out in life and this epic will ensure that she is honoured in death. She deserves nothing less.’
Anne Sebba, author of Les Parisiennes

‘A bold and moving exploration of the ethics of heroism.’
Times Literary Supplement (review of the German Edition)

‘A riveting and highly original retelling of the life of Annette Beaumanoir.’
The Bookseller

‘A novel about courage, resilience, and the struggle for freedom.’ 
German Book Prize Judges

‘[Anne Weber makes] the warmth and vibrant energy of a unique, very individual life palpable.’
Die Berliner Zeitung

‘It pushes linguistic, narrative and genre conventions to their limits, while posing big ethical questions, as its heroine’s idealism comes up against dirty realpolitik.’
Times Literary Supplement (review of the German Edition)

‘A reading delight from start to finish.’​
Die Süddeutsche Zeitung

"An accessible chronicle of a humanitarian who refused to bow to political disillusionment. Weber’s epic lives up to its form."—Publishers Weekly

"On its own, the history covered in Epic Annette would make for fascinating reading...Anne Weber’s decision to tell Beaumanoir’s story as a work of epic poetry adds yet another layer to the proceedings."—Words Without Borders

Author Biography

Anne Weber is a German-French author, translator into both French and German and self-translator. She studied in Paris and worked for several publishers. She started writing and publishing in French, but immediately translated her first book Ida invente la poudre into German as Ida erfindet das Schießpulver. Since then she has written each of her books in French and German. Her self-translations are often published at the same time in France and Germany. She was awarded the 2020 German Book Prize for Annette, ein Heldinnenepos.

Tess Lewis has received many accolades and awards including two PEN Translates grants and has been shortlisted for British prizes including the Schlegel Tieck award (2019, for Lutz Seiler’s Kruso, published by Scribe) and the Oxford/Weidenfeld Translation Prize. She has served on the Board of the National Book Critics Circle and as Co-chair of the PEN Translation Committee. She has been an Advisory Editor for The Hudson Review since 2003. Her essays and reviews have appeared in a number of journals and newspapers including Bookforum, Partisan Review, The Los Angeles Review of Books, The Hudson Review, World Literature Today, The Wall Street Journal, The Miami Herald and The American Scholar. She lives in Bronxville, NY.