Pascale Hugues: So voller Leben. Über meine Mutter

So full of life and yet so fragile. A woman torn between opposites: her parents longed so much for a boy and ended up with a well-behaved girl. Left-handed and forced to write with her right hand. Sometimes French, sometimes German, this Alsatian woman changes her nationality, her language, and even her first name three times. She wavers between the charm of the bourgeoisie and the allure of rebellion, between patriarchy and the great liberation of women. And arrives too late for the turning of the era. A caring mother, she disappears for weeks on end without explanation. Her life always straddling two poles, a mirror of her illness. Bipolar. Pascale Hugues follows in the footsteps of her mother, who died too young—her downfalls, her courage to get back up again and again. She unveils family legends and secrets and paints a picture of a time when mental illness was a taboo, hidden behind protective lies. A sensitive narrative of pain and joie de vivre.

Pascale Hugues, born in Strasbourg, is a journalist and writer. Her first book, “Marthe and Mathilde,” was an immediate success. For her book “Quiet Street in a Good Neighborhood,” she received the Prix Simone Veil and the European Book Prize. Pascale Hugues is the Germany correspondent for a French news magazine, a columnist, and writes regularly for various German media outlets.

A joint event with Literaturhaus Magdeburg e.V. as part of the LESUNG UMS ECK series at the HofGalerieMORITZHOF, within the framework of FRANKO.FOLIE! 2026.