The major new novel from the international bestselling author Édouard Louis - about social class, transformation, and the perils of leaving the past behind.
One question took centre stage in my life, it focused all of my thoughts and occupied every moment when I was alone with myself: how could I get this revenge, by what means? I tried everything.
Édouard Louis longs for a life beyond the poverty, discrimination and violence in his working-class hometown - so he sets out for school in Amiens, and, later, university in Paris. He sheds the provincial 'Eddy' for an elegant new name, determined to eradicate every aspect of his past. He reads incessantly; he dines with aristocrats; he spends nights with millionaires and drug-dealers alike.
