Book Presentation & Discussion with Susanne Gregor and Eleanor Updegraff – Halbe Leben

The ACF London is delighted to welcome Austrian-Slovak novelist Susanne Gregor and translator Eleanor Updegraff for a special evening celebrating Gregor’s latest novel Halbe Leben (Half lives).

This incisive and gripping book about two families, one in Slovakia, one in Austria, explores the dynamics of two interdependent families. A Slovakian woman puts her life on hold to support her children by working as a carer for a family in Austria. Starting out with a possible crime, the novel navigates shifting power dynamics and veiled exploitation with narrative skill as well as irony. Susanne Gregor explores major themes that affect us all, telling a story of inequality—between two women and their families, between two lives.

This very topical novel was recently dramatised and staged by the Volkstheater in Vienna using Slovakian surtitles and touring the city’s quarters in a variety of locations.

The event will be chaired by Andrea Capovilla, Director of the Ingeborg Bachmann Centre for Austrian Literature and Culture and will conclude with an audience Q&A session.

This bilingual event is accessible to non-German speakers.

Susanne Gregor https://susannegregor.com/ was born in 1981 in Žilina, Czechoslovakia. In 1990, she moved to Austria with her family. She studied German studies and journalism in Salzburg and later taught German as a foreign language at the University of New Orleans. She now lives in Vienna. Gregor has received multiple awards for her literary work, including the Elias Canetti Scholarship, the Writing between the Cultures Award and the City of Vienna Advancement Award. Her novel Wir werden fliegen was nominated for the Austrian Book Prize.

Eleanor Updegraff https://www.eleanorupdegraff.co.uk/about is a writer, editor, and translator of contemporary German and Austrian literature. Born in London and raised in Hampshire, she lived for several years in Vienna and Carinthia before returning to the UK. Her recent translations include Teresa Präauer’s Cooking in the Wrong Century, Tanja Paar’s The Trembling World and Annabelle Hirsch’s A History of Women in 101 Objects.