Monique Escapes
Published on 22. January 2026
Book
Hardback
128 pages
978-1-78730-504-5 (ISBN)
Description
I freed myself from your father, I thought this would be a new life for me and now it's starting all over, everything's starting all over again.
The blazing new book from once-in-a-generation writer Edouard 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, Edouard 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 Edouard'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 Edouard Louis' MAGGIE NELSON
'One of the major writers of our time' GARTH GREENWELL
The blazing new book from once-in-a-generation writer Edouard 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, Edouard 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 Edouard'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 Edouard Louis' MAGGIE NELSON
'One of the major writers of our time' GARTH GREENWELL
Reviews / Votes
One of the most important, politically vital and morally bracing writers of his generation * Guardian *More details
Language
English
Place of publication
United Kingdom
Publishing group
Vintage Publishing
Dimensions
Height: 200 mm
Width: 135 mm
Thickness: 16 mm
Weight
208 gr
ISBN-13
978-1-78730-504-5 (9781787305045)
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Schweitzer Classification
Other editions
Additional editions
Persons
Edouard Louis is the author of The End of Eddy, History of Violence, Who Killed My Father, A Woman's Battles and Transformations, Change, Monique Escapes and Collapse, and the editor of a book on the social scientist Pierre Bourdieu. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages, making him one of the most celebrated writers of his generation worldwide.