Anne Berest Picabia

Anne Berest (b. 1979, Paris) is a French novelist and playwright. She studied at Sciences Po in Paris. The MAGMA entry that groups her with the name Picabia reflects her family connection: she is the great-granddaughter of Gabriële Buffet-Picabia, first wife of Francis Picabia, whose life she co-wrote — with her sister Claire Berest — in Gabriële (Stock, 2017), a biographical novel tracing the trajectory of this musician, theorist, and muse who introduced Picabia to avant-garde Paris.

Her breakthrough as a solo writer came with La Carte postale (Grasset, 2021): an autofictional investigation of a postcard received by her mother bearing four names — those of her great-grandmother Myriam's family — who were all deported and killed at Auschwitz-Birkenau. Alternating between the contemporary investigation and the historical reconstruction of the family's fate, the novel received the Prix Renaudot des lycéens 2021, was longlisted for the Prix Goncourt, and was adapted for film by Rebecca Zlotowski in 2022. Her earlier works include Recherche femme parfaite (2012) and Sagan 1954 (Grasset, 2020), a portrait of Françoise Sagan in the year of her debut. She contributes to cultural journalism and is one of the most visible voices in French literary life.