Sylvie Germain
Encyclopedia
Early life and education
During her childhood, with her three brothers and sisters, she moved from city to city, depending on the assignments her sub-prefect father received.In 1976 she received her Masters degree in Philosophy from the Sorbonne
Sorbonne
The Sorbonne is an edifice of the Latin Quarter, in Paris, France, which has been the historical house of the former University of Paris...
, Paris, and in 1978 went on to complete a MA in philosophy and aesthetics at Université de Paris X - Nanterre
University of Paris X: Nanterre
Paris West University Nanterre La Défense formerly called Paris X Nanterre is a French university in the Academy of Versailles. It is one of the 13 successor universities of the University of Paris. It is located in the western suburb of Nanterre, near La Défense, the business district of Paris...
, where she completed a doctorate in philosophy in 1981. During those years she studied with a teacher she admires, Emmanuel Levinas
Emmanuel Lévinas
Emmanuel Levinas was a Lithuanian-born French Jewish philosopher and Talmudic commentator.-Life:Emanuelis Levinas received a traditional Jewish education in Lithuania...
, and her work focussed on the notion of asceticism in Christian mysticism.
Work
While employed by the Ministry of Culture in Paris, where she remained between 1981 and 1986, she produced her first novel, Le Livre des Nuits in 1985. It won six French Literary Prizes as well as the Scott Moncrieff Translations Prize in English. The reception of the book established her as a significnt new author.From Paris she moved to Prague, Czechoslovakia, where, from 1987 to 1993, she taught philosophy at the French School, and continued to write.
In 1989, she published Jours de Colère, (Days of Anger), which won the Prix Femina
Prix Femina
The Prix Femina is a French literary prize created in 1904 by 22 writers for the magazine La Vie heureuse . The prize is decided each year by an exclusively female jury, although the authors of the winning works do not have to be women...
.
In 1993, Sylvie Germain returned to France. She then lived between Paris and La Rochelle. But Prague continued to inspire her, a theme especially apparent in the novel Immensités, as well as the cultural life of Czech Republic more generally, as reflected in her meditation on the life and work of Bohuslav Reynek
Bohuslav Reynek
Bohuslav Reynek was one of the most important Bohemian poets, writers, painters and translators of the 20th century.-Education and personal life:...
. Since 1994 she has been involved only in literary activities.
In 1999, Sylvie Germain produced a biography focusing on the life of Etty Hillesum, the young Dutch Jewish woman who died at Auschwitz in November 1943, leaving behind a journal. Germain explored her spiritual life and, a year later, she published several books in various genres: a travelogue, a spiritual text and a photo album. In 2002 she published a new novel, La Chanson des Mal-Aimants, translated in English as The Song of False Lovers.
Her 2005 novel Magnus was awarded the Prix Goncourt des Lycéens
Prix Goncourt des Lycéens
The Prix Goncourt des Lycéens was created in 1987 as a sort of younger sibling of the Prix Goncourt, a prize for French language literature. The ten members of the Académie Goncourt select twelve literary works as nominees...
(a prize voted on by French high school students). Her most recent novel, L'inaperçu, was published by Albin Michel in August 2008.
In addition to novels, she has published essays on other artists (Vermeer: Patience et songe de lumière, 1993, for example), spiritual meditations (Les Echos du Silence) and a children's book (L'Encre du Poulpe). Most of her novels have been translated into English.