Édouard Louis

A Century and Three Women

My project is to write a history of France told through the lives of three women: my grand-mother, whose childhood in the 1930s was interrupted by the bombings of the Second World War; my mother, who was even more impoverished than her mother and who struggled with two alcoholic husbands, before completely re-inventing her life at 50 years old; and my little sister, who grew up in the 2000s and who is the first woman in the family to move to the big city. In my previous books, The End of Eddy, History of violence and Who killed my father, I tried to explore the issue of masculine domination and violence by writing stories, mostly about my father, my brother, and my cousin. I see this project as the following chapter of a collective and intimate story.

Édouard Louis is the author of three novels, History of Violence, The End of Eddy, and Who killed my Father. He is also the editor of a book on the social scientist Pierre Bourdieu. His work has appeared in the New York Times, the Guardian and Freeman's. His three first books were translated into more than twenty-five languages and have made him one of the most celebrated writers of his generation.

Photo credit: Arnaud Delrue