Please join First Light Books and Villa Albertine in welcoming author and philosopher Lola Lafon to Austin.
In When You Look at Me Like That, award-winning author Lola Lafon recounts her solitary night in the Amsterdam Annex where Anne Frank and her family hid during World War II. Immersed in the silence of that space, Lafon reflects on Anne Frank’s legacy—not as a mythic figure, but as a disciplined young writer. Weaving together personal and historical memory, she explores how we tell stories of tragedy, survival, and womanhood.
A bestseller in France, the book invites readers to reconsider the act of remembering and the power of writing in confinement.
Lola Lafon is a French novelist and musician whose acclaimed works include The Little Communist Who Never Smiled and Reeling: A Novel. She lives in Paris.
She will be in conversation with Ericka Knudson, an author and scholar specializing in the French New Wave. Dr. Knudson holds a PhD in Film Studies from the University of Paris and has taught French film and media at Harvard University.
Book + reserved seat $25/person. Tickets include a copy of the book and a reserved seat. Unreserved seats are available on a first come, first served basis. Free RSVPs are also encouraged.