2017 novel by Philippe Besson
Lie with Me ![]() |
Author | Philippe Besson |
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Translator | Molly Ringwald |
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Language | French |
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Genre | Autobiographical novel |
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Publisher | Julliard |
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Publication date | January 2017 |
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Publication place | France |
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Published in English | 2019 |
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Pages | 190 |
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Awards | Prix Maison de la Presse |
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ISBN | 2260029884 |
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Lie with Me (French: Arrête avec tes mensonges, lit. 'Stop with Your Lies') is a novel by French writer Philippe Besson. It was published in 2017 to critical acclaim, and became a bestseller in France.[1] It was translated into English by Molly Ringwald under the title Lie with Me and was lauded by English-language reviewers.[2][3]
Plot
Set in 1984 in rural France, in the small town of Barbezieux, the novel recounts the teenage love affair between the narrator and his schoolmate Thomas Andrieu.[4]
Impact and Adaptations
The novel became a bestseller in France.[1] The novel won the Prix Psychologies du Roman inspiran and the Prix Maison de la Presse.[5][6] The novel was a finalist for the Prix Orange du Livre.[7]
Besson, in a piece published in January 2020, writes about the significance to him of the novel The Lover by Marguerite Duras.
When, thirty years after my first reading, I threw myself into writing Lie With Me, it’s The Lover that I placed in front of me, on my desk, in plain view. The 1984 edition, yellowed, dog-eared, stained. I knew that I was going to write about my seventeen-year-old self, about what happened the year I turned seventeen, and I have never forgotten that that was the year I read The Lover for the first time. But there was something else: I had understood that I was going to call forth my memories, like Duras did, that I was going to write about the memory of adolescence, like Duras.[8]
The novel was adapted in 2022 into a film of the same name, which premiered at the Angoulême Francophone Film Festival on 27 August 2022.[9] It was also adapted into a play performed in January 2023 at the Théâtre de la Tempête in Paris.[10]
References