About the Book

“Every morning in the bathroom I would repeat the same phrase to myself over and over again . . . Today I’m really gonna be a tough guy.” Growing up in a poor village in northern France, all Eddy Bellegueule wanted was to be a man in the eyes of his family and neighbors. But from childhood, he was different—“girlish,” intellectually precocious, and attracted to other men.

Like Karl Ove Knausgaard or Edmund White, Édouard Louis writes from his own undisguised experience, but he writes with an openness and a compassionate intelligence that are all his own. The result—a critical and popular triumph—has made him the most celebrated French writer of his generation.

About the Author

Born Eddy Bellegueule in Hallencourt, France, Édouard Louis is one of the most prominent young voices in the literary French landscape today. His first novel, The End of Eddy, was an instant best-seller, and was translated into 20 languages. His second novel, Histoire de la violence, recounted his experience as a victim of rape and attempted murder in 2012. In 2014, Louis was awarded the Pierre Guénin Prize. He is the editor of a scholarly work on the sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and the co-author, with the philosopher Geoffroy de Lagasnerie, of "Manifesto for an Intellectual and Political Counteroffensive", published in English by the Los Angeles Review of Books.

About the Moderator

About the Boston Book Festival

Since 2009, the Boston Book Festival celebrates the power of words to stimulate, agitate, unite, delight, and inspire by holding year-round events culminating in an annual, free festival that promotes a culture of reading and ideas and enhances the vibrancy of Boston.

About the Cultural Services at the French Embassy

The Cultural Services of the French Embassy in the U.S. provide a platform for exchange and innovation between French and American artists, intellectuals, educators, students, the tech community, and the general public. Based in New York City, Washington D.C., and eight other cities across the US, the Cultural Services develop the cultural economy by focusing on six principal fields of action: the arts, literature, cinema, the digital sphere, French language and higher education.