Édouard Louis: Collapse

The ‘politically vital and morally bracing’ (The Guardian) writer discusses his stirring and deeply affecting books, Collapse and Monique Escapes.

In Collapse, Louis’ brother spends much of his life dreaming. He lives in a poor, working-class world, where he imagines that he becomes one of the finest butchers in France, travels, makes his fortune, restores cathedrals and earns his father’s love. But his reality allows none of this.

There is no way to escape, no one who can show him how, and everything about him – his drinking, his violence, his behaviour with women and with others – condemns him. At 38 he is found dead on the floor of his small studio apartment. This book is the story of his collapse.

Monique Escapes is an emotionally direct and fascinating reflection on the interplay between life and art. When Louis’ mother reveals that her partner is an alcoholic and emotionally abusive, 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.

Louis is the author of several books including The End of Eddy, History of Violence and Who Killed My Father. He is the editor of a book on sociologist Pierre Bourdieu and his work is translated into more than 30 languages.

Tash Aw was born in Taiwan and is a multi-award-winning author of five novels, three of which are longlisted for the Booker Prize, including his most recent novel, The South. His translation of Louis’ A Woman’s Battles and Transformations was shortlisted for the TA First Translation Prize.