Annette, ein Heldinnenepos

Awarded the German Book Prize 2020

What a life! Born in 1923 in Brittany, raised in modest circumstances, a member of the communist Resistance as a teenager, savior of two Jewish youths - for which she later received the honorary title "Righteous Among the Nations" from Yad Vashem - after the war a neurophysiologist in Marseille, sentenced to ten years in prison in 1959 for her involvement with the Algerian independence movement... and even today, she serves as a vivid example in schools of the importance of disobedience. Anne Weber narrates the improbable life of Anne Beaumanoir in a brilliant biographical epic of a heroine. The vividly described scenes raise many questions: What drives someone to resist? What do they sacrifice for it? How far can they go? What can they achieve? "Annette, an epic of a heroine" tells the story of a true heroine who concerns us all.

"The power of Anne Weber's narrative can be measured against the strength of her heroine: it is breathtaking how fresh the old form of the epic sounds here and with what ease Weber condenses the life story of the French resistance fighter Anne Beaumanoir into a novel about courage, resilience, and the struggle for freedom. 'Annette, an epic of a heroine' is a story full of hardships, which Weber recounts with sovereign restraint and subtle irony. It addresses nothing less than the German-French history as one of the foundations of our present Europe. We are grateful that Anne Weber has discovered Annette for us and tells her story.".