Love Me Tender

COMING TO CINEMAS ON AUGUST 7 'Destined to become a classic of its kind' Maggie Nelson 'One of the most compulsive voices I've read in years' Olivia Laing, Observer When Constance told her ex-husband that she was dating women, he made a string of unfounded accusations that separated her from her young son, Paul. Laurent trained Paul to say he no longer wants to see his mother, and the judge believed him. She approaches this new life with passionate intensity and the desire for an unencumbered existence, certain that no love can last. Apart from cigarettes, two regular lovers and women she has brief affairs with, Constance's approach is monastic and military - she swims daily, reads, writes, and returns to small or borrowed rooms for the night. A starkly beautiful account of impossible sacrifices asked from mothers, Love Me Tender is a bold novel of defiance, freedom and self-knowledge.

COMING TO CINEMAS ON AUGUST 7 'Destined to become a classic of its kind' Maggie Nelson 'One of the most compulsive voices I've read in years' Olivia Laing, Observer When Constance told her ex-husband that she was dating women, he made a string of unfounded accusations that separated her from her young son, Paul. Laurent trained Paul to say he no longer wants to see his mother, and the judge believed him. She approaches this new life with passionate intensity and the desire for an unencumbered existence, certain that no love can last. Apart from cigarettes, two regular lovers and women she has brief affairs with, Constance's approach is monastic and military - she swims daily, reads, writes, and returns to small or borrowed rooms for the night. A starkly beautiful account of impossible sacrifices asked from mothers, Love Me Tender is a bold novel of defiance, freedom and self-knowledge.

A novel of lesbian identity and motherhood, and the societal pressures that place them in opposition. The daughter of an illustrious French family whose members include a former Prime Minister, a model, and a journalist, Constance Debr? abandoned her marriage and legal career in 2015 to write full-time and begin a relationship with a woman. Her transformation from affluent career woman to broke single lesbian was chronicled in her 2018 novel Play boy , praised by Virginie Despentes for its writing that is at once "flippant and consumed by anxiety." In Love Me Tender , Debr? goes on to further describe the consequences of that life-changing decision. Her husband, Laurent, seeks to permanently separate her from their eight-year old child. Vilified in divorce court by her ex, she loses custody of her son and is allowed to see him only once every two weeks for a supervised hour. Deprived of her child, Debr? gives up her two-bedroom apartment and bounces between borrowed apartments, hotel rooms, and a studio the size of a cell. She involves herself in brief affairs with numerous women who vary in age, body type, language, and lifestyle. But the closer she gets to them, the more distant she feels. Apart from cigarettes and sex, her life is completely ascetic: a regime of intense reading and writing, interrupted only by sleep and athletic swimming. She shuns any place where she might observe children, avoiding playgrounds and parks "as if they were cluster bombs ready to explode, riddling her body with pieces of shrapnel." Writing graphically about sex, rupture, longing, and despair in the first person, Debr?'s work is often compared with the punk-era writings of Guillaume Dustan and Herve Guibert, whose work she has championed. As she says of Guibert: "I love him because he says I and he's a pornographer. That seems to be essential when you write. Otherwise you don't say anything." But in Love Me Tender , Debr? speaks courageously of love in its many forms, reframing what it means to be a mother beyond conventional expectations.

A novel of lesbian identity and motherhood, and the societal pressures that place them in opposition. The daughter of an illustrious French family whose members include a former Prime Minister, a model, and a journalist, Constance Debr? abandoned her marriage and legal career in 2015 to write full-time and begin a relationship with a woman. Her transformation from affluent career woman to broke single lesbian was chronicled in her 2018 novel Play boy , praised by Virginie Despentes for its writing that is at once "flippant and consumed by anxiety." In Love Me Tender , Debr? goes on to further describe the consequences of that life-changing decision. Her husband, Laurent, seeks to permanently separate her from their eight-year old child. Vilified in divorce court by her ex, she loses custody of her son and is allowed to see him only once every two weeks for a supervised hour. Deprived of her child, Debr? gives up her two-bedroom apartment and bounces between borrowed apartments, hotel rooms, and a studio the size of a cell. She involves herself in brief affairs with numerous women who vary in age, body type, language, and lifestyle. But the closer she gets to them, the more distant she feels. Apart from cigarettes and sex, her life is completely ascetic: a regime of intense reading and writing, interrupted only by sleep and athletic swimming. She shuns any place where she might observe children, avoiding playgrounds and parks "as if they were cluster bombs ready to explode, riddling her body with pieces of shrapnel." Writing graphically about sex, rupture, longing, and despair in the first person, Debr?'s work is often compared with the punk-era writings of Guillaume Dustan and Herve Guibert, whose work she has championed. As she says of Guibert: "I love him because he says I and he's a pornographer. That seems to be essential when you write. Otherwise you don't say anything." But in Love Me Tender , Debr? speaks courageously of love in its many forms, reframing what it means to be a mother beyond conventional expectations.

Alt i Constance Debrés liv ser strålende ud: Hun er succesfuld forsvarsadvokat og kommer fra et af de mest magtfulde familiedynastier i Frankrig. Indtil hun en dag vågner op, forlader sit topjob, sin store lejlighed midt i Paris og sin mand gennem tyve år. Da hun senere fortæller ham, at hun er begyndt at se kvinder, kastes hun ud i en absurd strid om forældremyndigheden og får ikke engang lov til at se sin 8-årige søn. For eksmanden mener ikke, at hendes nye liv som lesbisk, radikal forfatter er kompatibelt med rollen som mor. Men hvem dikterer vilkårene for kærlighed, i forelskelser og i moderkærlighed? Findes der virkelig noget rigtigt og forkert, når det kommer til at elske nogen? Og hvad vil det sige at leve sandt og frit? Love Me Tender er en kompromisløs autofiktiv roman om frihed, seksualitet og moderskab fra en af Frankrigs mest interessante nye litterære stemmer. »En af de mest fascinerende stemmer i flere år … « The Guardian »Et knytnæveslag lige i hjertet!« L Obs »Lige dele hjerteskærende og rebelsk.« The Spectator