The End of Eddy
A Novel
Picador · Print & ebook · November 19, 2019
An autobiographical novel about growing up gay in a working-class town in Picardy. “Every morning in the bathroom I would repeat the same phrase to myself over and over again . . .
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- Who it’s for
- An intimate, unsparing account of growing up gay amid poverty and the demands of masculinity.
- Themes
- Gay coming-of-age, Working-class hardship, Sexual awakening
- Genres
- Gay Fiction, Coming-of-Age, Biographical Fiction
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Start with this bookAbout this book
An autobiographical novel about growing up gay in a working-class town in Picardy. “Every morning in the bathroom I would repeat the same phrase to myself over and over again . . . Today I’m really gonna be a tough guy.” Growing up in a poor village in northern France, all Eddy Bellegueule wanted was to be a man in the eyes of his family and neighbors. But from childhood, he was different—“girlish,” intellectually precocious, and attracted to other men.
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Already translated into twenty-nine languages, The End of Eddy captures the violence and desperation of life in a French factory town. It is also a sensitive, universal portrait of boyhood and sexual awakening. Like Karl Ove Knausgaard or Edmund White, Édouard Louis writes from his own undisguised experience, but he writes with an openness and a compassionate intelligence that are all his own. The result—a critical and popular triumph—has made him the most celebrated French writer of his generation.
Boyhood Under Pressure
An intimate, unsparing account of growing up gay amid poverty and the demands of masculinity.
Come here for
- A close, autobiographical view of boyhood and sexual awakening
- Writing that pairs candor with compassion
Expect
- A portrait rooted in a poor northern French town
- An unsentimental look at family and neighbors’ expectations
Where it sits
| Gay Fiction | 61% |
|---|---|
| Coming-of-Age | 47% |
| Biographical Fiction | 46% |
Percentages are BookFrontier’s reading of the book.
Publisher categories
- Gay Fiction
- Biographical Fiction
- 21st-Century French Fiction
- Authors
- Édouard Louis
- Publisher
- Picador
- Published
- November 19, 2019
- Format
- Print & ebook
- Theme
- Gay coming-of-age · Working-class hardship · Sexual awakening
- Reading lane
- Gay Fiction