Ein Student from Alsace comes to Paris, he loves poetry, is invited to dinner by the widow of a famous poet, talks to her and her son until late at night, and that night changes his life. This is not the beginning of a Balzac novel; the student's name is Bertrand Badiou, the poet's widow is the artist Gisèle Celan-Lestrange. Badiou told me about their encounter when I met him in Paris two years ago to research my novel about Celan, just before the Russian invasion of Ukraine and long before the recent massacre in Israel.
Bertrand Badiou, one of the most important editors of Celan's works and letters, told me about his new book, a biography with pictures, many of which had never been published before. The text in it is based on Celan's estate, which Badiou manages together with his son Eric Celan, on his conversations with contemporary witnesses, but above all – and this makes this book unique – on a long-term relationship with Celan's wife and son.
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