Tuesday, September 12 at 6pm, join Polina Panassenko at NYU Maison Française for a performance reading of her much acclaimed debut novel, Tenir sa Langue (éditions de l’Olivier, 2022)

Born Polina in USSR, our narrator became Pauline upon her arrival in France (Saint-Etienne, near Lyon) with her family, just after the fall of the Soviet Union.
For the child, this change in her name marks the beginning of a double life: Polina at home, Pauline elsewhere. Twenty years later, she now lives in Montreuil, in the outskirt of Paris and has an appointment in court to try to win back her Russian first name.

Panassenko’s debut is a tale about living in between two countries, in between two languages. On one side stands Russia and her childhood with a datcha (summer house) and a community apartment where different generations live together. On the other, stands France, the country of materneltchik, of a new language that she must learn to master.

All at once funny, sweet and rebellious, Tenir sa langue reveals a new stand out literary talent.

In French. Free.

Born in Moscow, Polina Panassenko is a novelist, translator and actor. In 2015, she published an illustrated literary nonfiction Polina Grigorievna with Objet Livre éditions. Tenir sa langue, her debut novel was awarded the high schooler Fémina Prize 2022.