Monique Escapes

The blazing new book from once-in-a-generation writer Édouard Louis, as he helps his mother escape from an abusive partner.

One evening, during a writers’ residency in Athens, Édouard receives a tearful phone call from his mother, Monique. She tells him that the man she lives with in Paris is abusive, inflicting upon her the same drunken behaviour as Édouard’s father, repeating the same cycles of violence, shame and humiliation she fled from before.

Step by step, they plan her…