THE NO.1 FRENCH BESTSELLER AND WINNER OF THE MAISON DE LA PRESSE PRIZE\n'Stunning and heart-gripping' André Aciman, author of Call Me by Your Name 
'A beautiful, shattering novel about desire and shame, about passionate youth and the regrets of age' Olivia Laing, bestselling author of Crudo\nJust outside a hotel in Bordeaux, Philippe, a famous writer, chances upon a young man who bears a striking resemblance to his first love. What follows is a look back to Philippe's teenage years, to a winter morning in 1984, a small French high school, and a carefully timed encounter between two seventeen-year-olds. It's the start of a secret, intensely passionate, world-altering love affair between Philippe and his classmate, Thomas. 
Dazzlingly rendered by Molly Ringwald, the acclaimed actor and writer, in her first-ever translation, Besson's exquisitely moving coming-of-age story captures the tenderness of first love - and the heart-breaking passage of time. 
'It has been years since anything moved me as much as Lie With Me. It will become a classic.' Jonathan Coe, bestselling author of Middle England\n'An intense, unforgettable novel, alive with the ache of longing and loss.' Sarah Waters, bestselling, award-winning author of The Little Stranger and Fingersmith\n'Devastating and tender; this is the book I wish I'd read when I was 15, and a book I'm glad to have as a companion now' Andrew McMillan, award-winning author of Physical 
'A deeply moving depiction of first love, both tender and elegiac.' John Boyne, bestselling author of A Ladder to the Sky and The Heart's Invisible Furies\n'A slender, sad, acute novel... absolutely excellent' Sarah Perry, bestselling author of The Essex Serpent and Melmoth 
'A tender, sensuous novel' New York Times Book Review\n'Full of Proustian echoes, this story of gay adolescence deals with complex issues of class, shame and secrecy' Guardian\n'A poignant tale that captures the intensity of first love with all its sadness, longing and regret' Daily Mail\n'A clear-sighted and passionate coming-of-age narrative. Detailing in elegant and plain prose the anxious and intense first falling-in-love between two schoolboys, Lie With Me has a tenderness and insight that is reminiscent of the writings of Garth Greenwell. This novel can be read in a matter of hours, but its impact, like the love affair it details, will echo in the mind' Irish Times

Lie With Me: 'Stunning and heart-gripping' André Aciman

Literature & Fiction

Besson, Philippe

Literary

Penguin

Like Michael Cunningham's homage to Virginia Woolf in The Hours and Jean Rhys's to Charlotte Bronte in The Wide Sargasso Sea, Philippe Besson's extravagantly praised first novel pays tribute to Marcel Proust. It also dares to introduce an asthmatic middle-aged Proust into its masterfully manipulated plot and invents a series of deeply felt letters written by him to the novel's young protagonist, Vincent de l'Etoile. In the summer of 1916, the emotionally precocious Vincent, who is the same age as the century, awakens to the possibilities of both erotic and platonic love. In the course of one week—at literary salons, at the Ritz, in cork-lined rooms—Vincent launches an intense friendship with the celebrated Proust, while at his parents' house in Paris he embarks on a sensual journey with Arthur Vales, the soldier son of a family servant, on leave from the front. Unknowingly, Vincent is also beginning a passage into a manhood that will be haunted by the secret he uncovers behind the love he bears for a doomed French infantryman and a famous middle-aged Jewish writer.

In The Absence of Men

Contemporary

William Heinemann

Lucas’s brother Thomas is dying. At their childhood holiday home, the two brothers wait for Lucas to die. Besson’s dispassionate observation of disease and death is haunting, as he portrays the inability of others to cope with Thomas’ illness and the petty cruelties of the medical system. Interwoven with the chronicle of Thomas’ death are the brothers’ memories of their childhood and adolescence, their jealousies and rivalries, their unspoken bond. As those around them withdraw from this inexplicable, inexorable death, Lucas and Thomas retreat to their childhood paradise to wait for the end.

His Brother

Like Michael Cunningham’s homage to Virginia Woolf in The Hours and Jean Rhys’s to Charlotte Bronte in The Wide Sargasso Sea, Philippe Besson’s extravagantly praised first novel pays tribute to Marcel Proust. It also dares to introduce an asthmatic middle-aged Proust into its masterfully manipulated plot and invents a series of deeply felt letters written by him to the novel’s young protagonist, Vincent de l’Etoile. In the summer of 1916, the emotionally precocious Vincent, who is the same age as the century, awakens to the possibilities of both erotic and platonic love. In the course of one week—at literary salons, at the Ritz, in cork-lined rooms—Vincent launches an intense friendship with the celebrated Proust, while at his parents’ house in Paris he embarks on a sensual journey with Arthur Vales, the soldier son of a family servant, on leave from the front. Unknowingly, Vincent is also beginning a passage into a manhood that will be haunted by the secret he uncovers behind the love he bears for a doomed French infantryman and a famous middle-aged Jewish writer.

In the Absence of Men: A Novel

Wynne, Frank

Carroll&Graf

Panégyriques Et Oraisons Funèbres: Par L'abbé Besson, Volume 1 (French Edition)

Biographies & Memoirs

Nabu Press

The Advocate’s Best Gay Novel of 2019 A New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice O, The Oprah Magazine’s Best LGBTQ Books That'll Change the Literary Landscape in 2019 The Wall Street Journal’s Ten Books You’ll Want to Read this Spring Out's Best Queer Books of April 2019 TheSkimm’s LGBTQ+ books to celebrate Pride THE #1 FRENCH BESTSELLER “Stunning and heart-gripping.” —André Aciman, author of Call Me By Your Name The award-winning, bestselling French novel by Philippe Besson—“the French Brokeback Mountain” (Elle)—about an affair between two teenage boys in 1984 France, translated with subtle beauty and haunting lyricism by the iconic and internationally acclaimed actress/writer Molly Ringwald. We drive at high speed along back roads, through woods, vineyards, and oat fields. The bike smells like gasoline and makes a lot of noise, and sometimes I’m frightened when the wheels slip on the gravel on the dirt road, but the only thing that matters is that I’m holding on to him, that I’m holding on to him outside. Just outside a hotel in Bordeaux, Philippe chances upon a young man who bears a striking resemblance to his first love. What follows is a look back at the relationship he’s never forgotten, a hidden affair with a gorgeous boy named Thomas during their last year of high school. Without ever acknowledging they know each other in the halls, they steal time to meet in secret, carrying on a passionate, world-altering affair. Dazzlingly rendered in English by Ringwald in her first-ever translation, Besson’s powerfully moving coming-of-age story captures the eroticism and tenderness of first love—and the heartbreaking passage of time.

Lie With Me: A Novel

Scribner

“I remember the movement of his hips pressing against the pinball machine. This one sentence had me in its grip until the end. Two young men find each other, always fearing that life itself might be the villain standing in their way. A stunning and heart-gripping tale.” —André Aciman, author of Call Me by Your Name\nA New York Times Book Review Editor’s Choice\nThe critically acclaimed, internationally beloved novel by Philippe Besson—“this year’s Call Me By Your Name” (Vulture) with raves in The New York Times, The New Yorker, The Wall Street Journal,NPR, Vanity Fair, Vogue, O, The Oprah Magazine, and Out—about an affair between two teenage boys in 1984 France, translated with subtle beauty and haunting lyricism by the iconic and internationally acclaimed actress and writer Molly Ringwald.\nIn this “sexy, pure, and radiant story” (Out), Philippe chances upon a young man outside a hotel in Bordeaux who bears a striking resemblance to his first love. What follows is a look back at the relationship he’s never forgotten, a hidden affair with a boy named Thomas during their last year of high school. Thomas is the son of a farmer; Philippe the son of a school principal. At school, they don’t acknowledge each other. But they steal time to meet in secret, carrying on a passionate, world-altering affair.\nDespite the intensity of their attraction, from the beginning Thomas knows how it will end: “Because you will leave and we will stay,” he says. Philippe becomes a writer and travels the world, though as this “tender, sensuous novel” (The New York Times Book Review) shows, he never lets go of the relationship that shaped him, and every story he’s ever told.\n“Beautifully translated by Ringwald” (NPR), this is “Philippe Besson’s book of a lifetime...an elegiac tale of first, hidden love” (The New Yorker).

FROM THE BESTSELLING AUTHOR OF LIE WITH ME It is the summer of 1916 and, with German Zeppelins on the skyline, the men of Paris are off at war. For Vincent, the sixteen-year-old son of a prestigious family, the tranquillity of the city sits at odds with the salons and soirees he attends. But, after an electrifying encounter with the enigmatic writer, Marcel P, draws Vincent's desires out into the light, his ever-riskier liaisons with a young solider begin to shape Vincent's future. Translated by Frank Wynne 'A short, bold and original novel which beautifully captures the romance and amorality of gilded youth' Independent

In the Absence of Men

Vintage Classics

L'enfant d'octobre

Genre Fiction

GRASSET

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Besson, Philippe. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Books by Besson, Philippe

See the best price to sell, buy, or rent books by Besson, Philippe. BookScouter helps to compare book prices from 25+ online bookstores and 30+ buyback vendors with a single search.

Lie With Me: 'Stunning and heart-gripping' André Aciman

In The Absence of Men

His Brother

In the Absence of Men: A Novel

Panégyriques Et Oraisons Funèbres: Par L'abbé Besson, Volume 1 (French Edition)

Lie With Me: A Novel

Lie With Me: A Novel

In the Absence of Men: A Novel

In the Absence of Men

L'enfant d'octobre