The Origins

Both Agnès Desarthe and Fabrice Humbert have written novels about men embarking on a difficult investigation into their own past and the secrets that were kept from them, both taken back to the horrors of WW2.

In Fabrice Humbert's novel, The Origin of Violence, the trigger is a photograph seen during a visit to Buchenwald concentration camp. In Agnès Desarthe's The Foundling, it is a fatal accident.

The two novelists talk to Michael Arditti about their fascination with exploring the darkest hours of the twentieth century and their impact today.

Agnès Desarthe has written many books for children and teenagers, as well as adult fiction. Five Photos of My Wife which was short-listed for the Independent Foreign Fiction Prize and the Jewish Quarterly Fiction Prize. She is also the author of  Good Intentions. 

Fabrice Humbert won the Prix Renaudot and the first French Orange Prize for The Origin of Violence. He teaches in a Franco-German lycée. 

Michael Arditti is a reviewer and novelist. His two most recent novels are The Enemy of the Good and Jubilate.

Sponsored by the Institut français du Royaume Uni