Dear Dickhead

"The book of the moment" Sunday Times "Highly entertaining . . . subtle and complex" Guardian " Despentes at her very best" New European "Brilliant - funny, wise and completely addictive" VICTORIA HISLOP "Full of energy and blistering rationality" LISA McINERNEY 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 Latté 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 Zoé 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. Translated from the French by Frank Wynne

"The book of the moment" Sunday Times "Highly entertaining . . . subtle and complex" Guardian " Despentes at her very best" New European "Brilliant - funny, wise and completely addictive" VICTORIA HISLOP "Full of energy and blistering rationality" LISA McINERNEY 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 Latté 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 Zoé 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. Translated from the French by Frank Wynne

"The book of the moment" Sunday Times A Guardian Book of the Year "Highly entertaining . . . subtle and complex" Guardian " Despentes at her very best" New European " Full of emotional suspense" FT "Brilliant - funny, wise and completely addictive - a work of angry, outrageous and hilarious genius" VICTORIA HISLOP "Full of energy and blistering rationality" LISA McINERNEY An FT Best books of 2024 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 Latté 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 Zoé 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. Translated from the French by Frank Wynne

"The book of the moment" Sunday Times A Guardian Book of the Year "Highly entertaining . . . subtle and complex" Guardian " Despentes at her very best" New European " Full of emotional suspense" FT "Brilliant - funny, wise and completely addictive - a work of angry, outrageous and hilarious genius" VICTORIA HISLOP "Full of energy and blistering rationality" LISA McINERNEY An FT Best books of 2024 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 Latté 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 Zoé 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. Translated from the French by Frank Wynne

The French novel taking the world by storm: an ultracontemporary Dangerous Liaisons about sex, feminism, and addiction. Dear Dickhead, I read your post on Insta. You're like a pigeon shitting on my shoulder as you flap past. It's shitty and unpleasant. Waah, waah, waah, I'm a pissy little pantywaist, no one loves me so I whimper like a Chihuahua in the hope someone will notice me. Congratulations: you've got your fifteen minutes of fame! You want proof? I'm writing to you. Oscar is a B-list novelist in his forties. He used to be an alcoholic and a cokehead, but now he keeps himself busy by ranting on social media. When Rebecca, an actress whose looks he insulted, sends him an angry email, they strike up a combative correspondence--at the very moment that Oscar is accused of sexual harassment by his former publicist. What ensues is a no-holds-barred conversation about life under the patriarchy, and above all about addiction--to drugs, to alcohol, to the internet, to rage. Virginie Despentes, the celebrated author of King Kong Theory , has written her breakthrough book: a Dangerous Liaisons for our time. We follow Rebecca and Oscar as they develop an unlikely friendship and argue over questions of right and wrong in a city--Paris--where pleasure, excess, and freedom rule the day, or used to. Dear Dickhead is a guns-blazing novel about a culture that makes men and women sick, and about how the search for feeling leaves us addicted to what makes us feel. The result is a provocative and unmissable book from the author hailed by The Guardian as France's "rock and roll Zola."