Édouard Louis guest artist at ILFU Book Talks 2021

27 July 2021

Édouard Louis is guest artist at the Book Talks programme of ILFU on Saturday
September 25 th in TivoliVredenburg. Ticket sales started July 16 th .

Young author and sociologist Édouard Louis (1992) was born as Eddy Bellegueule. He
made his debut with his bestseller En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule (The End of Eddy), for
which he received the Prix Pierre Guénin, among other prizes.

Édouard Louis was born and raised in the north of France, which is the background of
his first novel En finir avec Eddy Bellegueule. Louis grew up in a poor family: his father, a
factory worker, was unemployed, and his mother occasionally worked in geriatric care.
The family was supported by government welfare. The poverty, discrimination and
alcoholism was confronted with during his childhood would become prevalent subjects
in his literary work.

In 2016 his second novel, Histoire de la violence (History of Violence), was published, an
uncompromising novel about the night Édouard Louis endured a vicious assault.
In 2018 he published his third autobiographical novel: Qui a tué mon père (Who Killed
My Father). It pays homage to his father and an indictment of capitalism and the political
elite who foot the lower classes the bill for their policies.

His new novel, Combats et métamorphoses d’une femme, was released on June 17. Louis
tells the story of his mother, who was a victim of the violence of men her whole life.
Then, a change happens: the story of her liberation – the liberation of a woman.

In 2020 theatre director Ivo van Hove presented an adaptation to the stage of the work,
in the form of a monologue for actor Hans Kesting, and the same year Weg met Eddy
Belleguele premiered as well, directed by the young Norse theatre director Eline Arbo.
Édouard Louis’ new book is currently adapted to the stage by ITA (in Dutch). Gevechten en
metamorfosen van een vrouw plays from September 9 th until September 18 th 2021.

https://ita.nl/nl/voorstellingen/gevechten-en-metamorfosen-van-een-vrouw/1654890/