Rose Désert: A Conversation with Violaine Huisman and Omar Berrada

Join Violaine Huisman and Omar Berrada as they discuss Huisman’s second novel, Rose désert, just published in France by Gallimard.

In Rose désert, Violaine, depressed and approaching thirty, decides to cross the desert from Morocco to Sénégal. Throughout this unlikely and perilous journey, she reflects on loss and control. She mentally revisits her love affairs and explores her romantic and sexual awakening with a rarely equaled sincerity.

“Violaine Huisman confirms her unique style… Rose désert is not merely a book about memories or goodbyes. […] Rather, it is a proudly literary work, the account of a metamorphosis.” –Le Monde

Violaine Huisman was born in Paris in 1979 and has lived and worked in New York for the past twenty years, most recently organizing the Brooklyn Academy of Music’s literary series. Her translations into French include David Grann’s True Crime and Ben Lerner’s The Hatred of Poetry. Fugitive parce que reine, her debut novel, was published in 2016 by Gallimard. Rose Désert is her second novel.

Omar Berrada is a writer and curator, and the director of Dar al-Ma’mûn, a library and artists residency in Marrakech. Currently living in New York, he teaches at The Cooper Union where he co-organizes the IDS Lecture Series. His exhibition, The Power of Two Suns, with Yto Barrada and Bettina, is on view at the LMCC Art Center on Governors Island through October 31.