The End of Eddy

The author grew up in Hallencourt, a village in northern France where many live below the poverty line. This novel is about life there. It is an extraordinary portrait of escaping from an unbearable childhood. Written with an openness and compassionate intelligence, ultimately, it asks, how can we create our own freedom?

When new voices come from underrepresented constituencies, there’s always the hope of a new perspective... I can read Edouard Louis and know something of what it means to grow up in extreme poverty in contemporary France

When new voices come from underrepresented constituencies, there’s always the hope of a new perspective... I can read Edouard Louis and know something of what it means to grow up in extreme poverty in contemporary France

Even in the wake of Knausgaard and Ferrante it is hard to find a literary phenomenon that has swept Europe quite like the autobiographical project of Édouard Louis

An extraordinary autobiographical novel about class, violence and sexuality in France. It’s a vivid, often brutal but immensely touching book that restores my faith in the power of literature

This is the courageous story of an outsider , in equal parts frank, provocative and compelling

Stunning ... A startling use of the extremely personal to convey a message that is universally relevant

An intelligent, revelatory book

The real achievement of the book is not its reportage, but its attitude. It is written entirely without self pity – and, astonishingly, without judgment... courageous, necessary and deeply touching

It is a brutal, forceful, gripping read. There is no hipster posing, no ironic distance; its anger and rawness make it refreshing. He has something to say – and it’s worth listening to… I suspect we’ll be hearing more of Edouard Louis. He is that relatively rare thing – a novelist with something to say and a willingness to say it, without holding back

A candid, necessary call against conventional definitions of masculinity and the fear of difference

Édouard Louis is the author of The End of Eddy, History of Violence, Who Killed My Father, A Woman's Battles and Transformations, Change, Monique Escapes and Collapse, and the editor of a book on the social scientist Pierre Bourdieu. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages, making him one of the most celebrated writers of his generation worldwide.