Édouard Louis (1992) is a French writer and sociologist. In Estonia, Louis is best known for his fifth book, Change (Changer: methode). The work has found a solid readership here and it is not difficult to understand why: it is rare for an autobiographical book to be so scathingly honest. Above all, Louis’ bold self-reflection is impressive. The narrator’s provincial early life in an uneducated and poor family makes him desperately crave for the big city to be a part of the fascinating and stylish life of intellectuals. The protagonist succeeds in achieving this, but the question arises as to at what cost. To borrow from Nietzche, escaping from the sick turns into the escape of the sick, an inability to be satisfied with anything, to believe in anything. This makes Change a work of rare maturity and complex psychology. Louis’ latest work published in Estonian, Qui a tué mon père, is a kind of modern-day j’accuse! about the contemporary political elite – certainly an evocative read also in the local context of callousness of the conservative-liberal political apparatus.
Performs at
| Date | Event Name | Location |
|---|---|---|
| Saturday, 31 May at 15:00 | Édouard Louis and Maria Esko | Estonian Writers’ Union |
