Édouard Louis in conversation with Elizabeth Duval

Édouard Louis swept into French literature like a breath of fresh air when he published The End of Eddy (Salamandra, 2015) his first novel inspired by his own life. His youth (he was only 22 when it came out), his talent and his tough and occasionally tragicomic style earned him the somewhat hackneyed nickname of enfant terrible. But Louis is much more than just that. His works are literary exercises in which he consciously sheds light on invisible worlds, worlds never referred to in literature; languages never used by literature, such as that of the proletariat and the lower classes; violence that to this day still elicits shame in the victim but not in his or her tormentors, such as that inflicted on homosexuals. Because as he rightly says: “I wanted to create literature with everything that is seemingly excluded from it.” With his scathing social criticism and his condemnation of oppressions to which certain groups are still subjected today, not only does he systematically upset a cultural bourgeoisie all too accustomed to navel-gazing, but he also sets out to challenge readers so that they are not merely aware of what’s going on, but they also react and get involved and feel outraged, which is what he himself has done.

Édouard Louis (Amiens, 1992) is a French writer and intellectual. His first novel The End of Eddy (Salamandra, 2015) was a best-seller in France, selling some 200,000 copies and leaving critics quite fascinated. After becoming an international phenomenon as well, Louis has since written History of Violence (Salamandra, 2018), Who Killed my Father (Salamandra, 2019) and A Woman’s Battles and Transformations (Salamandra, 2022). His latest novel is Change: method (Salamandra, 2023).

Elizabeth Duval (Alcalá de Henares, 2000) holds a degree in Philosophy and Modern Literature from the Sorbonne in Paris and devotes her time to writing and political analysis. She has published an anthology of poems entitled Exception (Letraversal, 2020), two novels, Queen (Reina) (Caballo de Troya, 2020) and Madrid will be their Tomb (Madrid será la tumba) (Lengua de Trapo, 2021), and an essay entitled What Comes after Trans (Después de lo trans) (La Caja Books, 2021). She is a regular contributor to such media as eldiario.es, Público, El País, CTXT, La Sexta and Playz de RTVE.

With the collaboration of Salamandra and the Institut Français