From 1982 to 2012, Paris’ Village Voice Bookshop was frequented by some of the greatest English-language authors of its time, such as David Sedaris, Amy Tan, and Don DeLillo. In her new memoir, Village Voices: A Memoir of the Village Voice Bookshop, Odile Hellier recounts her store’s forty years of cultivating literary excellence. This discussion will be moderated by long-time New York Times correspondent Alan Riding.

About the speakers:

Odile Hellier was born in the South of France during World War II and raised in Lorraine, near the German border, and Brittany, on the Atlantic Ocean. She is the founder and owner of the Village Voice Bookshop, a hub of Anglophone literary life and culture that operated in the heart of Saint-Germain-des-Prés in Paris for more than thirty years. 

Alan Riding is a former correspondent of the New York Times, having been variously based in Mexico City, Rio de Janeiro, Rome and Paris, most recently as the paper’s European arts correspondent. He is author of books on Mexico, Shakespeare, Opera and the cultural life of Paris during the Nazi occupation. He lives in Paris with his journalist wife, Marlise Simons.

Important information: The discussion will be available both online and in person. While the conversation will happen in person (the speakers will appear in the Reading Room), the Library will stream the conversation on Zoom for a live viewing experience. Both in-person and online attendees will be able to pose questions.

Attendance at this event constitutes permission for your photograph or video to be taken at the event and used by the American Library in Paris for marketing, promotional, pedagogical, or other purposes.