Trauriger Tiger

There are good books, there are very good books—and then there are those that can change your life. Neige Sinno’s deconstruction of the sexual abuse she suffered at the hands of her stepfather and the childhood that was taken from her as a result is one such book. Written with a focus on intertextuality and an essayistic style, the text follows a strict structure of understanding, drawing on personal documents, literature and theory and in doing so cleverly dispels narratives and assumptions about sexual abuse. It is a paradoxical literary undertaking: Sinno repeatedly reflects on the meaning and risk of her own project, questioning it and being unsparing, especially with herself. Trauriger Tiger is an autofictional tour de force—honest, intelligent, absolutely necessary—stylistically precise and sensitively translated into German by Michaela Meßner.
—Cia Rinne

Neige Sinno was born in 1977 in the Hautes-Alpes region of France, spent many years in Mexico and now lives in the French Basque Country. She studied American literature, which she taught at university, and worked as a translator. She has published short stories and the novella Le Camion, as well as several essays. For Trauriger Tiger, she has received numerous awards, including the Prix Femina, the Prix Goncourt des lycéens and the Premio Strega Europeo 2024.

Michaela Meßner was born in Mainz and lives as a freelance translator in Munich. She has received numerous scholarships and was awarded the Raymond Aron Prize. She has translated works by Négar Djavadi, Giuliano da Empoli, and Anne Berest, among others.