Virginie Despentes

Dear Dickhead,
I read the piece you posted on Insta. You're like a pigeon shitting on my shoulder as you flap past. It's shitty and unpleasant.

Congratulations: you've had your fifteen minutes of fame! You want proof? Here I am writing to you.

Rebecca Latte is a famous actress in her fifties, perhaps past the peak of her career.

Oscar Jayack is a middle-aged, moderately successful author who, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, has been accused of sexual harassment by his former publicist-turned-feminist blogger Zoe Katana.

When Oscar insults Rebecca's appearance on Instagram, she sends a scorching reply and the pair fall into a spiral of mutual antipathy. In back-and-forth emails, they vie for the last word, finding common ground in their experiences of addiction, assessing the changing world around them as Covid locks down Paris, and reluctantly beginning to lean on one another.

A novel of rage, irreverence and vulnerability, exploring ageing, gender, privilege, addiction and consent, Dear Dickhead is an excoriating encapsulation of our times and of the broken human beings trying to make sense of it.

En racontant pour la première fois comment elle est devenue Virginie Despentes, l'auteur de Baise-moi conteste les discours bien-pensants sur le viol, la prostitution, la pornographie. Manifeste pour un nouveau féminisme.

Deux soeurs jumelles, deux personnalités opposées : Claudine et Pauline n’ont pas grandi de la même façon et les adultes qu’elles sont devenues n’ont rien pour s’entendre. L’une est rebelle et renfermée, l’autre est une pin-up ambitieuse. L’une a un talent, l’autre les dents longues. Est-il possible de réconcilier deux extrêmes que tout semble séparer ? Virginie Despentes dresse ici le portrait d’une femme écartelée entre deux choix de vie : compromission ou radicalité.
Le roman a reçu le prix de Flore en 1998 et a été porté à l’écran par Gilles Paquet-Brenner en 2001, avec Marion Cotillard et Stomy Bugsy dans les rôles titres.

**SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL 2018**WHO IS VERNON SUBUTEX?An urban legend. A fall from grace. The mirror who reflects us all. Vernon Subutex was once the proprietor of Revolver, an infamous music shop in Bastille. His legend spread throughout Paris. But by the 2000s his shop is struggling. With his savings gone, his unemployment benefit cut, and the friend who had been covering his rent suddenly dead, Vernon Subutex finds himself down and out on the Paris streets. He has one final card up his sleeve. Even as he holds out his hand to beg for the first time, a throwaway comment he once made on Facebook is taking the internet by storm. Vernon does not realise this, but the word is out: Vernon Subutex has in his possession the last filmed recordings of Alex Bleach, the famous musician and Vernon's benefactor, who has only just died of a drug overdose. A crowd of people from record producers to online trolls and porn stars are now on Vernon's trail. VERNON SUBUTEX TWO IS PUBLISHED IN JULY 2018Translated from the French by Frank Wynne

Rock star Alexandre Bleach might be dead, but he has a secret. It's a secret that concerns several people, but the only person who can unlock it is Vernon Subutex, former record shop proprietor turned homeless messiah and guru, last seen hallucinating and feverish on a bench in the parc des Buttes Chaumont. Aicha wants to know the truth behind the death of her mother, Vodka Satana. And if she finds the bastards responsible, she wants to make them pay, whatever Celeste thinks of her plan. Celeste wants Aicha to get a grip and stop hanging around with Subutex's gang of disciples. The Hyena wants to find the Bleach tapes. She wants to untangle her complicated feelings about Anais, her boss' assistant. And speaking of her boss, she does not want Laurent Dopalet to discover how badly she has double-crossed him. Laurent Dopalet wants the Hyena to find and destroy the Bleach tapes. He wants to forget he ever knew Vodka Satana. He wants people to stop graffitiing his apartment with ludicrous allegations. Above all, he wants people to understand: NONE OF THIS IS HIS FAULT. THE SEQUEL TO VERNON SUBUTEX 1, SHORTLISTED FOR THE MAN BOOKER INTERNATIONAL PRIZE 2018. Translated from the French by Frank Wynne

Qui est Vernon Subutex ? Une légende urbaine. Un ange déchu. Un disparu qui ne cesse de ressurgir. Le détenteur d'un secret. Le dernier témoin d'un monde révolu. L'ultime visage de notre comédie inhumaine. Notre fantôme à tous.

L'écrivaine fait le choix de surprendre. À l'infinie noirceur du premier tome succède la lumière qui baigne celui-ci. Raphaëlle Leyris, Le Monde. Le livre de l'année. Yann Barthès, Le Petit Journal. Un livre de combat. Nathalie Crom, Télérama. Une saga indignée et désenchantée. Patrick Cohen, France Inter Despentes nous happe par une construction romanesque exceptionnelle. Unique. Olivia de Lamberterie, Elle. Virginie Despentes est une immense romancière. Augustin Trapenard, Le Grand Journal. Un grand roman politique, puissamment contestataire. Nelly Kaprièlian, Les Inrockuptibles.

«Διάβασα τι έγραψες στο Insta σου. Είσαι σαν περιστέρι που με κουτσούλησε στον ώμο όπως περνούσα: βρομερό και πολύ δυσάρεστο. Νια νια νια, είμαι ένας φωνακλάς που τον έχουν όλοι γραμμένο και τσιρίζω σαν τσιουάουα μπας και με προσέξουν. Δόξα και τιμή στα σόσιαλ: το κέρδισες το δεκαπεντάλεπτο της φήμης σου. Απόδειξη; Κάθομαι τώρα και σου γράφω». Μετά τον θρίαμβο της τριλογίας του Βερνόν Σουμπουτέξ, η μεγάλη επιστροφή της Βιρζινί Ντεπάντ, με αυτές τις υπερσύγχρονες Επικίνδυνες σχέσεις: ένα μυθιστόρημα μανίας και παρηγοριάς, θυμού και αποδοχής, όπου η φιλία αποδεικνύεται πιο δυνατή από τις ανθρώπινες αδυναμίες. «Όπως το Βερνόν Σουμπουτέξ, το Αγαπητέ μαλάκα είναι ένας ύμνος στη φιλία, στον δεσμό εκείνο που τουλάχιστον μπορεί να κάνει τον άνθρωπο λιγότερο “μαλάκα” και τη ζωή πιο υποφερτή, τουτέστιν να τη σώσει. Αναμειγνύοντας τα θέματα, τις φωνές των ηρώων και τα γλωσσικά ιδιώματα, το Αγαπητέ μαλάκα είναι ένα φωτεινό μυθιστόρημα μεγάλης ευγένειας. Αυτό μπορεί να φαίνεται οξύμωρο όταν πρόκειται για τη Βιρζινί Ντεπάντ, αλλά δεν είναι». Le Monde