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  • Published: 20 February 2020
  • ISBN: 9781784709907
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 96
  • RRP: $27.99

Who Killed My Father




The non-fiction companion to The End of Eddy: a short, powerful personal-political essay addressed to Louis' father

Who Killed My Father is the story of a tough guy – the story of the little boy I never was. The story of my father.
‘What a beautiful book’ MAX PORTER

In Who Killed My Father, Édouard Louis explores key moments in his father’s life, and the tenderness and disconnects in their relationship.

Told with the fire of a writer determined on social justice, and with the compassion of a loving son, the book urgently and brilliantly engages with issues surrounding masculinity, class, homophobia, shame and social poverty.

It unflinchingly takes aim at systems that disadvantage those they seek to exclude – those who have their expectations, hopes and passions crushed by a society which gives them little thought.

‘Édouard Louis is the vanguard of France’s new generation of political writers’
Evening Standard

  • Published: 20 February 2020
  • ISBN: 9781784709907
  • Imprint: Vintage
  • Format: Paperback
  • Pages: 96
  • RRP: $27.99

About the author

Edouard Louis

Édouard Louis is the author of two novels and 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 first two novels, The End of Eddy and History of Violence, were translated into thirty languages, and have made him one of the most celebrated writers of his generation.

Also by Edouard Louis

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Praise for Who Killed My Father

[A] small but hugely powerful book… Louis has further enhanced his growing reputation as the head of France's new wave of revolutionary writers

Paul Simon, Morning Star

Edouard Louis [is] the vanguard of France’s new generation of political writers

Arjun Neil Alim, Evening Standard

Edouard Louis… speaks with an emotional authenticity and a stylistic confidence that is hard to ignore

Tim Adams, Observer

This valuable tale brings emotion to a discussion led by numbers, encouraging us to remember the real human lives affected by policy and political point-scoring

Todd Gillespie, Financial Times

This short work tackles the intersections of class, gender and sexuality... Louis gives voice to the way the cruel, crude hegemony of masculinity has essentially destroyed his father’s life, making him "as much a victim of the violence" he inflicted as of the violence he endured

Lauren Elkin, Guardian

To understand what is happening now in France, or indeed, all over Europe, this is an essential text

Irish Times

With great clarity, this short autobiography speaks of 21st-century working-class lives tarnished by shame and the erosion of hopes and ambitions. Louis and his father appear to recover from their personal losses of love and joy and family life; but it feels too late and at too great a cost

Martin Myers, Times Higher Education

A masterful work from an underrepresented voice, which reminds us that the political is intrinsically personal

Independent