Monique Escapes

The blazing new book from once-in-a-generation writer Édouard Louis, as he helps his mother escape from an abusive partner

SELECTED AS A BOOK TO READ FOR 2026 BY THE FINANCIAL TIMES AND NEW STATESMAN

One evening, during a writers’ residency in Athens, Édouard receives a tearful phone call from his mother, Monique. She tells him that the man she lives with in Paris is abusive, inflicting upon her the same drunken behaviour as Édouard’s father, repeating the same cycles of violence, shame and humiliation she fled from before.

Step by step, they plan her escape, celebrating each small victory of Monique’s new beginning. But how do you rebuild your life when you’ve never truly known freedom?

Monique Escapes is an intimate and gripping portrait of a mother fighting for her self-determination, and of the son who becomes her ally. It is a story of reinvention, the price of liberty and the remaking of the relationship between a mother and a son who, despite the weight of their shared history, manage to find each other again.

Translated by John Lambert

'One of the most important, politically vital and morally bracing writers of his generation' GUARDIAN

'I feel so lucky to be living and writing at the same time as Édouard Louis' MAGGIE NELSON

'One of the major writers of our time' GARTH GREENWELL