{"id":18585,"date":"2026-07-06T15:32:39","date_gmt":"2026-07-06T13:32:39","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/?p=18585"},"modified":"2026-07-19T13:06:59","modified_gmt":"2026-07-19T11:06:59","slug":"carrying-the-torch","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/stolb01web.ddns.net\/wordpress\/?p=18585","title":{"rendered":"Passing the torch"},"content":{"rendered":"
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Trag das Feuer weiter<\/em><\/em> (\u00dcbersetz. Amelia Thoma. Luchterhand Literaturverlag, 2026)<\/a><\/figcaption><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n

With Le Pays des autres 3: J\u2019emporterai le feu<\/em> (\u00c9ditions Gallimard, Paris 2025) Le\u00efla Slimani has brought her wonderful family trilogy to an end; as too comes my reading of it in German translation as Trag das Feuer weiter<\/em><\/em> (\u00dcbersetz. Amelia Thoma. Luchterhand, M\u00fcnchen 2026). (Published last month in the US by Penguin as I’ll take the Fire<\/em><\/a>; a title with which I could quibble as I understand in the original and the German title the emphasis to be on continuity – over generations, those passed and those to come – that is missing here. I would say ‘carry’ rather than ‘take’, and ‘torch’ seems to me to be more descriptive of the passing on (in classical mode I’m thinking about a relay, the Olympic flame), but whatever … And translated again by Sam Taylor.)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Over some years now, I have been captivated by Slimani’s saga that draws upon her own family story; the first part<\/a> exploring the grandparent generation so to speak, the second<\/a>, that of the parents and this third, the author’s own, bringing them altogether in a conclusion that imagines the non-conclusive, that is, the ‘what comes next’ being dependent on the ‘what came before’ – for better and worse – and every generation’s responsibility to keep the narrative alive even when the protagonists have moved on. By which, I do not mean that they are no longer (necessarily) amongst the living, but are getting on with living their own<\/em> life, creating their own legacy<\/em>, writing their own<\/em> independent story.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

A recent article<\/a> in The Guardian<\/em> alerted me to a Le\u00efla Slimani residency at the Prado (Writing the Prado<\/a><\/em> it is called), and it is in this capacity that the following video of a conversation between Slimani and Valerie Miles<\/a> comes.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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