Monique Escapes opens with a telephone call between Édouard Louis and his mother, who reveals that her partner is an alcoholic and emotionally abusive. Her sadness and fear distresses Édouard, who is in Athens, although his vacant apartment immediately offers her somewhere to stay - and an escape route.
Together, mother and son plot her next steps in what becomes a meditation on the price of liberty, the challenges involved in change, and the necessity of remaking their own relationship even as they work to free her from cycles of abuse. It is a work of remarkable emotional directness and a fascinating reflection on the interplay between life and art - and ultimately the story of an older women''s reinvention as she starts a new life.
I freed myself from your father, I thought this would be a new life for me and now it’s starting all over, everything’s starting all over again. The blazing new book from once-in-a-generation writer Édouard Louis, as he helps his mother escape from an abusive partnerSELECTED AS A BOOK TO READ FOR 2026 BY THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND NEW STATESMANOne 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 escape, celebrating each small victory of Monique’s new beginning. But how do you rebuild your life when you’ve never truly known freedom?Monique Escapes is an intimate and gripping portrait of a mother fighting for her self-determination, and of the son who becomes her ally. It is a story of reinvention, the price of liberty and the remaking of the relationship between a mother and a son who, despite the weight of their shared history, manage to find each other again. Translated by John Lambert'One of the most important, politically vital and morally bracing writers of his generation' GUARDIAN'I feel so lucky to be living and writing at the same time as Édouard Louis' MAGGIE NELSON'One of the major writers of our time' GARTH GREENWELL
- | Author: Edouard Louis, John Lambert
- | Publisher: Vintage Publishing
- | Publication Date: Jan 22, 2026
- | Number of Pages:
- | Language: eng
- | Binding: Hardback
- | ISBN-13: 9781787305045
- | ISBN-10: 178730504X
