Die geheimste Erinnerung der Menschen

Mohamed Mbougar Sarr masterfully tells a story about the search for a lost author: when the young Senegalese Diégane gets hold of a cult book that was thought to be lost, he embarks on a search for its enigmatic author T.C. Elimane. Celebrated as the ‘Black Rimbaud’ in the 1930s, after being subject to racist hostility and caught in a scandal he went into hiding. Who was he? Addictively told and with inimitable irony, Sarr takes the reader on a labyrinthine journey spanning three continents. A masterful coming-of-age novel, gripping crime story, and an urgent examination of the complex legacy of colonialism, this is a book that dares much—and triumphs.

From the jury’s statement:
‘Mohamed Mbougar Sarr’s novel locates oral storytelling in the world of the literary. And it does so full of wit, eroticism, and intellectual depth, in an elegant and breathtakingly knowledgeable way. Sarr’s masterpiece is a stunning reflection on literature, the freedom of the writer, including his freedom to remain silent. Ultimately, it is as much about the journey towards words, love, grief, and oneself as it is about the failure of this search for one’s innermost secrets, the inscrutability of humanity itself.
The translation by Sabine Müller and Holger Fock effortlessly allows the daring of Sarr’s imagination and the elegance of his sentences to radiate. Rather, with admirable ease, the translators have succeeded in enriching the German language with a narrative that culminates in Germany’s history of violence. Sarr’s pace and wit come through in the language of Müller and Fock, as does the delicateness and intellectual power of his novel.’
—Asal Dardan and Deniz Utlu for the jury

Mohamed Mbougar Sarr was born in Dakar and grew up in Senegal and studied literature and philosophy in France. To date he as published three novels, for which he was awarded the Prix Stéphane Hessel and the Grand Prix du Roman Métis, among others. For The Most Secret Memory of Men, his first work to appear in German translation, he received the Prix Goncourt in 2021.

Holger Fock and Sabine Müller work collaboratively to translate French literature into German. Authors they have translated include Mathias Énard, Alain Mabanckou, Patrick Deville, and Olivier Rolin. In 2011, they were awarded the Eugen Helmlé Translator’s Prize, and in 2023 they receive the Paul Celan Prize for their body of translation work.