Change

“[Louis is] one of the most important, politically vital and morally bracing writers of his generation . . . The book ends not with triumph, but on a note of exhaustion and resignation. It is this that gives Change its lasting power: the realisation that a hero’s journey only makes sense if the hero has a home to return to . . . How lucky we are to have him, a writer who relentlessly chronicles the type of lives that are lived by so many but rendered by so few.”—Keiran Goddard, The Guardian

“[Louis] is unafraid to reveal his own casual nastiness towards his parents and his friends. That is what makes the new novel so compelling–it is less a misery memoir and more The Talented Mr. Ripley as told by Ripley himself.”—Andrew Hussey, The Guardian

“A breathless account . . . There’s the bracing directness of Louis’s prose, translated into English by John Lambert; the fitful structure, crammed with self-conscious annotations and swift shifts in form; the unsparing examination of poverty and extreme privilege in modern France; [and] the rendering of an appetite for better, different, more that can no longer reasonably be satisfied. Here, self-invention is an act of brutal violence with no discernable survivors.”—Marley Marius, Vogue

“Édouard Louis is a master in the poetics of juxtaposition, elucidating the hostile and the intimate, the murky and the pure, the vulnerable and the resilient, the changeable and unchangeable of the world with his brilliant and preternatural intelligence. Change is a poignant and compelling read!”—Yiyun Li, author of Wednesday’s Child

“I feel so lucky to be living and writing at the same time as Édouard Louis. Reading the urgent, unspooling prose of Change—Louis’s latest account of a motley life lived so far—fills me with admiration and inspiration, as well as renewed faith in writing itself, and the value of paying persistent, pellucid attention to our relations, desires, histories, and selves.”—Maggie Nelson, author of On Freedom

“Louis’ storytelling, in Lambert’s deft translation, is clear and intellectually robust but captures a tone of fear and anxiety; what he often calls ‘revenge,’ even on a family that might deserve it, is a corrosive feeling. A sharp chronicle of status climbing and its consequences.”—Kirkus Reviews (starred)

“This fast page-turner will stir emotions and quicken heartbeats as Eddy creates his ideal self-image.”—Library Journal (starred review)

“With frank prose and staggering insights, Louis makes the story of his metamorphosis feel vital and alive. This is irresistible.”—Publisher’s Weekly (starred review)