Charlotte Gneuss joins the Maison de Heidelberg in Montpellier for a literary encounter focused on the French translation of her first novel, published in French as 'Les Jeux heureux de l'enfance' (The Happy Games of Childhood).
The novel is set in the suburbs of Dresden in the 1970s. Sixteen-year-old Karin looks after her younger sister while her grandmother recalls her youth under the Nazi regime and her parents long for a different life. When her boyfriend Paul fails to return from a hike, Karin finds herself interrogated by the Stasi, drawn into a world of surveillance and suspicion where every decision carries weight.
Described as an intimate yet universal fresco, the novel transports readers into a vanished world whose echoes still resonate today. The encounter runs from 14:30 to 16:00 on Saturday 19 September 2026 as part of the Journées européennes du patrimoine 2026.