Tom Lanoye

Tom Lanoye

Tom Lanoye is an award-winning Belgian novelist, poet, and playwright whose work has been translated into 15 languages. He is the author of more than 50 works of poetry, drama, and fiction. His bestselling autobiographical novel Speechless was adapted for the screen in 2017. Lanoye has won many literary prizes, including the prestigious Constantijn Huygens Prize in 2013 for his entire oeuvre. When he’s not performing on stage, he lives between Antwerp and Cape Town.

Website: lanoye.be
Twitter: @TomLanoye
Instagram: @tomlanoye

Slaves to Fortune demonstrates with dizzying speed that we Westerners are depressingly interchangeable. – De Volkskrant

FESTIVAL BOOK

Slaves to Fortune

Slaves to Fortune is a societal satire with a classic doppelgänger motif, which tackles current topics such as the global financial crisis with scathing humor. Two Belgian exiles, both called Tony Hanssen, are on the run from their former lives on different continents. Amidst the chaos of global capitalism, lawlessness, and disintegrating lives, a chance meeting between the two Hanssens gives each the opportunity to redeem himself by betraying the other.

Speechless

Harnessing his power as a playwright and dexterity as a poet, Lanoye weaves together autobiography and fiction to recount the last years of his mother’s life. Flamboyant, proud, and dominant, Josée is unrecognizable after suffering a stroke, which strips her of the ability to speak. In Speechless, Lanoye paints a colorful picture of his childhood and how he came to terms with his homosexuality. Humour, pain, and copious amounts of love run throughout this critically acclaimed novel.

DIVE DEEPER

Profiles

Reviews

Videos

  • “Tom Lanoye Interview at the Edinburgh International Book Festival” — YouTube

ALL EVENTS WITH Tom Lanoye

10 AM
Tea & Sustenance: Translation Showcase
Oct 20 @ 10 AM MT - 11:30 AM MT

Memorial Park Library, Alexander Calhoun Salon

1221 2 St SW
7 PM
Tuesday Night Showcase
Oct 22 @ 7 PM MT - 8:30 PM MT

Memorial Park Library, 2nd Floor

1221 2 St SW