History of Violence is international bestselling French author Edouard Louis’s autobiographical novel about surviving a shocking sexual assault and coping with the post-traumatic stress disorder of its aftermath.

On Christmas Eve 2012, in Paris, the novelist Édouard Louis was raped and almost murdered by a man he had just met. This act of violence left Louis shattered; its aftermath made him a stranger to himself and sent him back to the village, the family, and the past he had sworn to leave behind.

A bestseller in France, History of Violence is a short nonfiction novel in the tradition of Truman Capote’s In Cold Blood, but with the victim as its subject. Moving seamlessly and hypnotically between past and present, between Louis’s voice and the voice of an imagined narrator, History of Violence has the exactness of a police report and the searching, unflinching curiosity of memoir at its best. It records not only the casual racism and homophobia of French society but also their subtle effects on lovers, brothers and sisters, husbands and wives. It represents a great step forward for a young writer whose acuity, skill, and depth are unmatched by any novelist of his generation, in French or English.

作者

爱德华·路易斯（Édouard Louis），原名艾迪·贝勒格勒，1992年出生于法国的庇卡底。21岁时，他创作了自传体小说《艾迪的告别》，该书以黑马之姿入选龚古尔文学奖和都柏林文学奖。《艾迪的自白》是他创作的第二部自传体小说，被法国媒体盛赞为“当代文学中最伟大的声音”之一。

译者

丁雪，毕业于华中科技大学法语专业。现专职从事翻译工作。