Jean-Christophe Rufin

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Jean-Christophe Rufin, October 2013

Jean-Christophe Rufin (born June 28, 1952 in Bourges , France ) is a French doctor , traveler, diplomat , writer and humanitarian activist.

life and work

Childhood and youth

Since Rufin's father had left the family at an early age and his mother had to earn a living as a journalist in Paris, he grew up with his grandparents. The grandfather took part in the First World War as a doctor . In 1940, during the occupation of France by German troops in World War II , he was deported to the Buchenwald concentration camp for two years because he had hidden members of the Resistance in his house in Bourges .

After finishing school, Rufin studied medicine in Paris at the Pitié-Salpêtrière and also at the Institut d'études politiques , one of the renowned Grandes Écoles in France. As a young doctor he then worked at the Hôpital Rothschild . Although he specialized in neurology , Rufin practiced in the gynecological department . In 1976 he did his military service in Tunisia.

Medical career

After completing his specialist training at the "Internat des hôpitaux de Paris" (1975–1981), he worked at various Parisian hospitals, partly in a managerial position and partly in the central hospital administration.

Rufin was vice president of the French section of Doctors Without Borders for a while . In 2005 he became president of the human rights society Action Contre la Faim .

Politics and diplomacy

In 2003 Rufin was commissioned by the then French Interior Minister Dominique de Villepin to write a study on anti-Semitism in France. The Rufin Report was presented on October 19, 2004. In 2007 Rufin went to Dakar as the French ambassador to Senegal . At the same time, he was also accredited as an ambassador to the Gambia. On June 30, 2010, he resigned from diplomatic service.

The Académie française elected him to their member in June 2008. The then 55-year-old was the youngest member of the academy at the time.

In his novels Rufin thematized, among other things, pressing contemporary problems in environmental protection and the Third World. Rouge Brésil was a novel about a fictional, historically possible conquest of Brazil by France in the 16th century, Globalia approaches the subject of the Third World as a science fiction novel, in 100 hours Rufin packs his basic topic in an eco-thriller.

Awards

Works

Jean-Christophe Rufin has published several novels and essay volumes, some of which have won literary prizes:

Novels
  • L'Abyssin , 1997 (German: Der Abessinier, Ü: Claudia Steinitz), Roman, awarded the Prix ​​Goncourt du premier roman and the Prix ​​Méditerranée ,
  • Sauver Isphahan , 1998 (German: The daughter of the Abyssinian, Tr: Claudia Steinitz), Roman
  • Asmara et les causes perdues , 1999, Roman, awarded the Prix ​​Interallié (German: Tage in Asmara, T: Claudia Steinitz),
  • Rouge Brésil , 2001, Roman, awarded the Prix ​​Goncourt ,
  • Globalia , 2004, Roman, (German: Globalia, Ü: Claudia Steinitz).
  • La Salamandre , 2005, novel,
  • Le Parfum d'Adam , 2007, Roman (German: 100 hours, trans .: Brigitte Große and Claudia Steinitz).
  • Katiba , 2010, Roman (German: Between Two Fronts, Tr: Anne L. Braun)
  • Sept Histoires qui reviennent de loin - nouvelles (Gallimard, 2011)
  • Le Grand Cœur - roman (Gallimard, 2012) (German: The Treasurer of the King, Tr: Nathalie Lemmens)
  • Le Collier rouge - (Gallimard, 2014), novel, awarded Prix Maurice Genevoix
  • The red collar , from the French by Nathalie Lemmens. C. Bertelsmann; 176 pp.
  • Check-point (Gallimard, 2015)
  • Le tour du monde du roi Zibeline (Gallimard, 2017)
  • Le Suspendu de Conakry (Flammarion, 2018)
  • Les Sept Mariages d'Edgar et de Ludmilla (Gallimard, 2019)
Essays
  • Le piège humanitaire 1986,
  • L'Empire et les nouveaux barbaren 1991 (German: The Reich and the new barbarians),
  • La dictature libérale 1994 (German: Die Dictatur des Liberalismus), * L'Aventure humanitaire , Découvertes Gallimard series (nº 226), 1994.
  • Together with Francois Jean : Économie des guerres civiles 1996 (German: Economics of civil wars).
  • Together with Arnaud de la Grange and Jean-Marie Balencie: Mondes rebelles 1996.
  • Immortelle Randonnée. Compostelle malgré moi - Prix Pierre Loti 2014 (Éditions Guérin, 2013) (German: Nothing sought. Everything found. My journey on the Way of St. James, T: Ralf Pannowitsch).
  • Discours de réception d'Amin Maalouf à l'Académie française et réponse de Jean-Christophe Rufin (Grasset, 2014).

Web links

Individual evidence

  1. ^ Report, in French , The US State Department on Religious Freedom in France, engl.
  2. ^ Jean-Christophe Rufin Docteur des lettres honoris causa
  3. ↑ The war novel "The Red Collar": The culture of remembrance depends on the dog , review in Der Spiegel from November 26, 2014, accessed September 7, 2015
personal data
SURNAME Rufin, Jean-Christophe
BRIEF DESCRIPTION French doctor, writer , diplomat and human rights activist
DATE OF BIRTH June 28, 1952
PLACE OF BIRTH Bourges , France