For reading enthusiasts, meet on Saturday November 30 for the 15e edition of the book fair. Open from 10 a.m., it will welcome sixty authors. Among them, Bogdan Obraz who testifies to Franco-Ukrainian relations in his novel Kyiv-Paris.
Bogdan Obraz is Ukrainian: he grew up in kyiv and his grandmother was born in France. His grandparents were Ukrainian and Polish nationals, settled peacefully in the North of France.
His grandmother spoke French to him. “I grew up in the French environment, I was lulled by French music and literature”, he confides. A student at the kyiv University of Economics and Business, Bogdan was admitted to the Master's program at ESCP in Paris, where he has remained ever since.
From business to writing
He started writing as a student. He thus discovered contemporary Ukrainian literature, many of whose works by his colleagues are available in French: Serhii Zhadan, Yuri Andrukhovytch, Oksana Zabuzhko, Lyubko Derech, Andrii Kurkov, etc. “It was like a breath of freedom in their texts and I myself tried to become a writer despite my business training.”
A very particular situation with his double degree course which makes him return frequently, every two weeks or every month, to Ukraine. His life is shared between kyiv and Paris. He then began writing his novel by exploring the city of Paris, nostalgically remembering kyiv, while searching for parallels and differences between France and Ukraine, questioning himself existentially as a foreign student and mixing love stories.
Son roman Kyiv-Paris was published in Ukraine in 2015 and the French translation saw the light of day in 2018 during the book fair in Paris. Last spring, his second novel Lviv-Lyon. Instagram was published in Ukrainian. “Despite the complicated situation in Ukraine, the book was very well received by Ukrainian readers, it received good reviews from literary influencers. I have a translator and I am looking for a publisher to publish it in France,” completes the author.
The detailed program of the show
Opening at 10 a.m., reading “read and have people read” for children aged 5 to 9 at 11 a.m., inauguration of the lounge and reception at 12 p.m., dictation for children and adults in the Orangerie room at 2 p.m., meeting authors led by Véronique Chassagnac at 3 p.m., “read and read” reading for children aged 5 at 4 p.m., dictation prize giving, and the manga competition the media library and work by primary and middle school students at 5 p.m. then closing of the show at 6 p.m., followed at 7 p.m. by the screening of the film “Louise Violet” in the Jeanne-d'Arc room.
