Background

Agnès Desarthe was born on the 3rd of May, 1966 in Paris, France. Her father was a Sephardic Jew from Algeria who had immigrated to France, while Desarthe’s mother hailed from an Ash­kenazi Jewish family in Russia. On her mother’s side, many relatives had perished in the Holocaust, including Desarthe’s grandfather. Growing up, Desarthe was keenly aware of the cultural differences between the two sides of her family.

Education

Agnès Desarthe graduated with a degree in literature and linguistics from the Ecole Normale Supérieure.

Career

At the beginning of her career, Agnès Desarthe worked as a teacher of English. Presently, she is the author of around 30 children’s books and nine novels. She has also translated the work of major authors including Loïs Lowry, Anne Fine, Cynthia Ozick, Jay McInerney and Virginia Woolf from English into French. Her first book, Les peurs de Conception was published in 1992. She also wrote Cinq photos de ma femme in 1998, that was translated by Adriana Hunter as Five Photos of My Wife and Les bonnes intentions in 2000, translated by Adriana Hunter as Good Intentions. Her most recent writings are La Chance de leur vie and Le Monde selon Frrrintek.

Achievements

• Agnès Desarthe is particularly known as the author of books. She has received numerous awards for her talents as a writer and translator. In 1996, Agnès was awarded the Inter Book Prize for An Unimportant Secret, and in August 2015 her work This Changeable Heart, published by Éditions de l’Olivier, received Le Monde Literature Prize. Five Photos of My Wife was short­listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Award in 2002. Two of her novels, Five Photos of my Wife and An Unimportant Secret, have been translated into Chinese and published in China.

Works

More photos

• book

  • Les Peurs de Conception 1992
  • Je ne t'aime pas Paulus 1991
  • Mangez-moi 2006
  • La chance de leur vie 2018
  • Comment j'ai changé ma vie 2004
  • Petit Prince Pouf 2002
  • Comment j'ai appris à lire 2013
  • Je veux être un cheval 2006
  • Les Bonnes Intentions 2000
  • Ce coeur changeant 2015
  • Igor le Labrador et Autres Histoires de chiens 2004
  • Le Roi René: René Urtreger par Agnès Desarthe 2016
  • Dans la nuit brune 2010
  • Un secret sans importance 1996
  • Cinq Photos de ma femme 1998
  • A deux, c'est mieux 2004
  • Une partie de chasse 2012
  • Je manque d'assurance 1997
  • Le Remplaçant 2009
  • Le monde selon Frrrintek 2018
  • Ce qui est arrivé aux Kempinski 2014
  • V.W. Le mélange des genres, sur Virgina Woolf 2004

Connections

Agnès Desarthe is married to Dante Desarthe. They have two sons.

Father:

Aldo Naouri

Aldo Naouri was born on the 22nd of December, 1937 in Benghazi. He is a pediatrician, specialist in intra-family relations and author. He is known for Fathers And Mothers, Le couple et l'enfant, Une place pour le père, L'enfant bien portant.

Brother:

Laurent Naouri

Laurent Naouri was born on the 23rd of May, 1964 in Paris, France. He is a French opera singer. After studying in London, Laurent Naouri soon found himself appearing on numerous national and international stages. His highly diverse repertoire includes some forty roles, ranging from early baroque to contemporary opera. Among these and most notably are the Four Villains (The Tales of Hoffmann) in Paris, Madrid, Orange, Zurich, Milano, Barcelona and Munich, Golaud (Pelléas et Mélisande) in Paris, Glasgow, Salzburg, Berlin, Madrid and Barcelona, Count Almaviva (Le Nozze di Figaro) in Aix-en-Provence and Tokyo, the title role of Falstaff in Lyon, Santa Fe and Glyndebourne, Pandolfe (Cendrillon) in Barcelona, Sharpless (Madama Butterfly) at the New York Metropolitan Opera, Germont (La Traviata) in Santa Fe, Tokyo, and Dallas.

husband:

Dante Desarthe

Dante Desarthe was born on the 27th of January, 1965. He is a French film director and writer, known for La mort d'une vache, Le système de Ponzi and Je me fais rare.