Dear Dickhead

A novel of rage, irreverence and vulnerability, exploring ageing, gender, privilege, addiction and consent - by the queen of French punk literature

Full of energy and blistering rationality, but generosity, too. This might be Despentes' wittiest and wisest novel yet.

Brilliant - funny, wise and completely addictive - a work of angry, outrageous and hilarious genius.

Highly entertaining . . . subtle and complex

A book that shows Despentes at her very best: incisive, intelligent and fearless. There is justifiable anger at the heart of Dear Dickhead , but it's a clear-eyed and channelled anger

This is what makes Despentes and her characters so appealing: they act as if they have nothing to lose yet it's clear they do . . . At 55, she is still lancing the patriarchy, and her writing remains highly acute. But it has become more sober, patient and full of emotional suspense

Despentes pulls it off with a brio that's wholly characteristic . . . the energy of [her] voice kept me on her side, and rooting for Oscar, Rebecca and Zoé as they navigated their lives with varying degrees of failure, distress and, occasionally, hope

A must-read...While waiting for society to evolve, Virginie Despentes stays the same

Virginie Despentes writes with a harpoon...A queer Castor. A grunge Jane Austen. A punk Pythia. A bacchante rebelling against the patriarchal order

This is the paradox and, perhaps, the power of Virginie Despentes: to be seen as both a radical and mainstream, divisive and agreeable, raging and benevolent

She can capture all that makes up an era in a way nobody else can

She is a flower in the asphalt and the queen of her time

Wry, intelligent, often laugh-out-loud funny - definitely not one to miss.

An excellent read . The writing in Dear Dickhead is electric, explosive, mad, beautiful, and exhilarating . Nothing is sacred, life is rude and ugly and all is potentially beautiful.

VIRGINIE DESPENTES is a writer and filmmaker. Her first novel, Baise-Moi was published in 1992 and adapted for film in 2000. She is the author of over fifteen further novels, including Apocalypse Baby (2010) and Bye Bye Blondie (2004), and the autobiographical work, King Kong Theory (2006). She won the Prix de Flore in 1998 for Les Jolies Choses , the 2010 Prix Renaudot for Apocalypse Baby and Vernon Subutex One won the Prix Anaïs Nin in 2015, and was shortlisted for the Man Booker International in 2018.