This Strange Eventful History
Interview conducted by Kasmira Jefford, editor in chief of Geneva Solutions
CLAIRE MESSUD is an American novelist and professor of creative writing, known for acclaimed works like The Emperor’s Children (Les enfants de l’empereur, Gallimard, 2009) and The Burning Girl (La fille qui brûle, Gallimard, 2018). She spent her childhood in the United States, Australia and Canada, and her international upbringing informs her writing on themes of identity, family and memory. She has received Guggenheim and Radcliffe Fellowships. Since August 2025, she has stopped teaching at Harvard after ten years of ffull-time service. She lives in Cambridge (MA).
Her latest novel, This Strange Eventful History (L’étrange tumulte de nos vies, Bourgois, 2024), is based on her own family history. Between 1940 and 2010, the Cassar lived through the events of history, never putting down roots anywhere after leaving Algeria. It is both spacious and distilled, told from five points of view in one family, dazzling us with echoing themes, unraveling secrets and rolling crescendos.