Did I Write a Feel-Good Book?

January 28, 2020

In 2015, Lançon was injured during the terrorist attack against the satirical weekly Charlie Hebdo. He spent nine months in different hospitals, including La Salpêtrière and Les Invalides, has undergone multiple reconstructive surgeries, and is still recovering. Three years after the attack, Lançon published Le lambeau (Disturbance), his memoir of the atrocity and the way it reshaped his life. A bestseller in France, the book won Femina, Roger Caillois, and special Renaudot prizes and has been translated into several languages. 

Lançon also writes for the French weekly Libération and XXI magazine and is the author of the novels L’élan and Les îles. A specialist in French and Latin American literature, he has taught on culture, society, and violence. Lançon is a recipient of the Henri de Régnier Prize from the French Academy and the Jean-Luc Lagardère Award for Journalist of the Year, and has been named a Chevalier of the Ordre des Arts et des Lettres.

The Finzi-Contini Lectureship honors Bianca M. Finzi-Contini Calabresi, a scholar of European literature and a native of Ferrara who left fascist Italy to establish herself in the United States. The lectureship was founded by her sons, the Honorable Guido Calabresi, Judge, U.S. Court of Appeals for the Second Circuit, and Dr. Paul Calabresi. The distinguished list of past lecturers includes Orhan Pamuk, W. S. Merwin, Maxine Hong Kingston, and Amitav Ghosh. The lectures are devoted to any aspect of comparative literature and culture.