Virginie Despentes

"Apocalypse Baby is more than a compelling punk, queerish spin on the noir genre. It is a choral performance that tumbles its readers into the heart of violent spectacle, with all its attendant grief, unease, and unclarity." --Maggie Nelson, author of The ArgonautsValentine is a wayward teenage girl on the run through Paris and Barcelona. She is tailed by two mismatched private investigators: the Hyena--part ruthless interrogator, part oversexed rock star--and Lucie, her plain and passive--almost to the point of invisible--sidekick. As their desperate search unfolds, they interrogate a suspicious cast of characters, exposing the dark heart of contemporary youth culture. In this fast-paced feminist thriller, Virginie Despentes presents a scathing social criticism with flawed, fascinating characters and spellbinding prose.Virginie Despentes is a writer, filmmaker, and noted French feminist critic. She is the author of many award-winning books, including King Kong Theory, Apocalypse Baby (winner of the 2010 Prix Renaudot), and the Vernon Subutex trilogy (shortlisted for the 2018 International Booker Prize). She co-directed the screen adaptations of her controversial novels Baise-Moi and Bye Bye Blondie, and served as screenwriter for the adaptation of her novel Pretty Things.

A New Yorker best book of 2024 A Financial Times Best Translated Book of 2024Library Science September book club pick A Vulture most anticipated bookOne of The New York Times' 24 works of fiction to read of fall 2024 A Guardian best translated fiction pick A Town & Country must-read fall book"It's a thrill to hear the characters develop on the page . . . One of the better portrayals of addiction I've encountered in literature, up there with books by Jean Rhys and Leslie Jamison." ―Joumana Khatib, The New York Times Book Review "Engrossing . . . Full of emotional suspense." ―Pamela Druckerman, Financial Times 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."

"The book of the moment" Sunday TimesA 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 McINERNEYAn FT Best books of 2024Dear 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

"Brilliant - funny, wise and completely addictive - a work of angry, outrageous and hilarious genius" VICTORIA HISLOP"Full of energy and blistering rationality" LISA McINERNEY"A must-read . . . While waiting for society to evolve, Virginie Despentes stays the same" VogueDear 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."Virginie Despentes writes with a harpoon . . . A queer Castor. A grunge Jane Austen. A punk Pythia. A bacchante rebelling against the patriarchal order" CauseurTranslated from the French by Frank Wynne

"Kulla mölakasMa lugesin, mis sa oma Insta kontole postitasid. Sa oled nagu tuvi, kes on mulle lennult õlale sittunud. See on ropp ja väga ebameeldiv. Vääks vääks vääks olen väike pihkur kes kedagi ei huvita ja kiunun nagu chihuahua sest unistan et keegi mind ometi märkaks. Kiidetud olgu sotsiaalmeedia: saidki oma viisteist hiilguseminutit kätte. Tõestus - ma kirjutan sulle.""Kulla mölakas" on paljukardetud prantsuse kärekirjaniku Virginie Despentes'i kauaoodatud reaktsioon #metoo-tormile ja koroonapandeemiale, kiriromaan, mille sündmused leiavad aset 2020. aastal ... internetis.Küpses eas narkomaan Rebecca käivitab sapiselt algava kirjavahetuse teda Instagramis solvanud keskealise alkohooliku Oscariga, keda süüdistab oma blogis seksuaalses ahistamises nooremapoolne nutisõltlane Zoe. See, et üks neist on filmistaar, teine tähtkirjanik ja kolmas kuulus feminist, ei säästa neid millestki, otse vastupidi - miljonite arvamusavaldajate haardeulatuses saavad kõik kolm väga täpselt teada, kust jookseb inimvõimete piir.Eesti publikule filmiga "Kepi mind", romaanitriloogiaga "Vernon Subutex" ja esseega "King Kongi teooria" tuttavaks saanud tabude tabustaja Despentes jätkab uues teoses päevakajaliste sündmuste taustal meie kaasaegse inimese räsitud hingeelu lahkamisega, kasutades selleks talle omaselt vaheldumisi imepeent skalpelli ja tärisevat relakat.

"A literary phenomenon" The Times"Despentes' writing is intelligent, outspoken, witty, shocking, propulsive and streetwise" Times Literary SupplementTHE FINAL VOLUME IN THE EPIC ROCK AND ROLL TRILOGY BY CULT AUTHOR VIRGINIE DESPENTESAlthough it means leaving behind the community of disciples who have followed him on his travels and assembled at his raves and gatherings, Vernon Subutex is compelled to return to Paris to visit the dentist.Once back in the city, he learns that Charles, his old friend from his days on the Paris streets, has died and left him half of a lottery win. But when Vernon returns to his disciples with news of this windfall, it does not take long before his followers start to turn on each other, and his good fortune provokes ruptures in his once harmonious community.Meanwhile, storm clouds are gathering for Aïcha and Céleste: Laurent Dopalet is determined to make them pay for their attack on him, whatever it takes and whoever gets hurt. And before long, the whole of Paris will be reeling in the wake of the terrorist atrocities of 2015 and 2016, and all the characters in this kaleidoscopic portrait of a city will be forced to a reckoning with each other.Translated from the French by Frank Wynne

Out of print in the U.S. for far too long, writer and filmmaker Virginie Despentes's autobiographical feminist manifesto is back--in an improved English translation--"blistering with anger, and so precisely phrased that it feels an injustice to summarize it" (Nadja Spiegelman, New York Review of Books). I write from the realms of the ugly, for the ugly, the old, the bull dykes, the frigid, the unfucked, the unfuckable, the hysterics, the freaks, all those excluded from the great meat market of female flesh. And if I'm starting here it's because I want to be crystal clear: I'm not here to make excuses, I'm not here to bitch. I wouldn't swap places with anyone because being Virginie Despentes seems to me a more interesting gig than anything else out there. Powerful, provocative, and personal, King Kong Theory is a candid account of how the author of Baise-Moi and Vernon Subutex came to be Virginie Despentes. Drawing from personal experience, Despentes shatters received ideas about rape and prostitution, and explodes common attitudes about sex and gender. An autobiography, a call for revolt, a manifesto for a new punk feminism, King Kong Theory is Despentes's most beloved and reviled work, and is here made available again in a brilliant new translation by Frank Wynne.

Paris may burn, the world may crumble, but Vernon Subutex shall reign supreme --The final installment of writer/filmmaker Virginie Despentes's Man Booker International Prize shortlisted punk-rock trilogy. The basis for the TV series of the same name available on streaming. As storm clouds gather, portending a final reckoning, ersatz rave-cult leader Vernon Subutex decides to return to Paris. Even if it means leaving behind his disciples. He has to. He's got a dentist's appointment. Back in the city, he learns that an old friend from his days homeless on the Paris streets has died and left him half of a lottery win. But when Vernon returns to his commune with news of this windfall, it's not long before his disciples turn on each other. Such good fortune does not accord with the principles Vernon has handed down. Meanwhile, the monstrous film producer Laurent Dopalet is determined to make A cha and C leste pay for their attack on him, whatever it takes and whoever gets hurt. And, before long, the whole of Paris will be reeling in the wake of the terrorist atrocities of 2015 and 2016, and all the characters in this kaleidoscopic portrait of a city and era will be forced to confront one another one last time. In the wake of all this chaos and hate, the question will rise again: After all he's been through, who is Vernon Subutex? And the answer: He is the future. Virginie Despentes's epochal trilogy ends with Vernon Subutex 3--in fire, blood, and even forgiveness. But not everyone will survive to see the dawning of the golden age of Subutex.

Part social epic, part punk-rock thriller, writer/filmmaker Virginie Despentes's Vernon Subutex trilogy continues the Man Booker International Prize shortlisted sprawling tale of an ex-record shop clerk's celebrity fortunes and misfortunes. The basis for the TV show of the same name available on streaming. Rock star Alex 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. He has tapes of Alex that will shake the world. The hunt is on, and the wolves are closing in. Meanwhile, the cast of lovers and killers in Vernon's orbit is in violent disarray. A cha wants to know the truth behind the death of her mother, the porn star Vodka Satana. And if she finds the bastards responsible, she wants to make them pay, whatever C leste thinks of her plan. C leste wants A cha 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 Ana s, her boss's assistant. And speaking of her boss, she does not want Laurent Dopalet to discover how badly she has double-crossed him. Big-shot producer 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. "Virginie Despentes's Vernon Subutex trilogy is the zeitgeistiest thing I ever read." --Nell Zink, Bustle, "The Best Books of the 2010s"

From the provocative writer and filmmaker Virginie Despentes comes volume one of her acclaimed trilogy of novels, Vernon Subutex--short-listed for the Man Booker International Prize and the basis for the TV series of the same name. But who is Vernon Subutex? Vernon Subutex was once the proprietor of Revolver, an infamous music shop in Paris, where his name was legend throughout Paris. By the 2000s, however, with the arrival of the internet and the decline in CD and vinyl sales, his shop is struggling, like so many others. When it closes, Subutex finds himself with nowhere to go and nothing to do. Before long, his savings are gone, and when the mysterious rock star who had been covering his rent suddenly drops dead of a drug overdose, Subutex finds himself launched on an epic saga of couch-surfing, boozing, and coke-snorting before finally winding up homeless. Just as he resigns himself to life as a panhandler, a throwaway comment he once made on Facebook takes the internet by storm. The word is out: Subutex is lugging around a bunch of VHS tapes shot by that same dead rock musician--his last recordings on this earth. Soon a crowd of wild characters, from screen writers to social media groupies, from porn stars to failed musicians to random misfits, are hot on Vernon's trail . . . but Vernon is none the wiser. "Virginie Despentes's Vernon Subutex trilogy is the zeitgeistiest thing I ever read. Everything about it is contemporary, right down to the fearless woman author who doesn't think of herself as a feminist and gives an impression at least in interviews of habitually killing rapists." --Nell Zink, Bustle, "The Best Books Of The 2010s"

**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.Translated from the French by Frank Wynne"Thrilling, magnificently audacious" Irish Times"Brimming with sex, violence and deviant behaviour" Sunday Times"Virginie Despentes's Vernon Subutex trilogy is the zeitgeistiest thing I ever read" NELL ZINK

Baise-Moi is one of the most controversial French novels of recent years, a punk fantasy that takes female rage to its outer limits. Now the basis for a hit underground film which was banned in France, Baise-Moi is a searing story of two women on a rampage that is part Thelma and Louise, part Viking conquest. Manu and Nadine have had all they can take. Manu has been brutally raped, and determines it's not worth leaving anything precious lying vulnerable -- including her very self. She teams up with Nadine, a nihilist who watches pornography incessantly, and they enact their own version of les vols et les viols (rape and pillage) -- they lure men sexually, use them up, then rob and kill them. Drawing from the spiky cadences of the Sex Pistols and the murderous eroticism of Georges Bataille or Dennis Cooper, Baise-Moi is a shocking, accomplished, and truly unforgettable novel.

”Kära kräk, Jag såg vad du publicerade på ditt Instakonto. Du är som en duva som skiter på min axel när den flaxar förbi. Det är kletigt och rätt så otrevligt. Buhu buhu jag är en liten nolla som ingen bryr sig om och jag bjäbbar som en chihuahua för att få uppmärksamhet. Ära vare de sociala medierna: där fick du din kvart i rampljuset! Bevis? Att jag svarar.” Oscar är en halvlyckad författare i fyrtioårsåldern med skrivkramp. Han är nykter alkoholist och knarkare, men numera håller han sig sysselsatt med att rasa på sociala medier. När Rebecca, en skådespelerska vars utseende han förolämpat, skickar honom ett rasande mejl, inleder de en konfrontativ korrespondens och i samma veva anklagas Oscar för sexuella trakasserier av en yngre före detta kollega. Det som följer är ett kompromisslöst samtal om livet under patriarkatet, och framför allt om beroende – av droger, av alkohol, av internet, av raseri. Kära kräk är en roman som slår hårt åt alla håll. Den beskriver en kultur som gör både män och kvinnor sjuka. Det är en vild käftsmäll som utvecklar sig till en varm roman om tiden vi lever i, om oväntad vänskap, acceptans och förlåtelse.

"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 McINERNEYDear 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

I King Kong og kvinden fortæller Despentes hudløst ærligt de personlige erfaringer, der har gjort hende til den, hun er. Uden at fremstille sig selv som hverken offer eller heltinde afslører hun hvordan hun blev voldtaget som 17-årig og beretter om sit arbejde som prostitueret, inden hun blev forfatter og filminstruktør. Hun argumenterer for at legalisere prostitution og sexarbejde generelt, ligesom hun vil gøre op med det endnu fremherskende, fordømmende syn på porno. En bog fuld af oprør og vrede, sex og intelligens, humor og punkmusik. King Kong og kvinden er oversat af Mette Olesen.

Skuespilleren Rebecca har passert femti, men er fortsatt like tiltrekkende. Oscar, en førtitre år gammel forfatter med skrivesperre, harselerer med folk på nettet og hører på rap mens han prøver å skrive en ny bok. De omfavner begge myten om den plagede kunstneren og er eksperter på blandingsavhengighet, men begynner å kjenne at det kanskje er på tide å endre kurs.Zoé er knapt tretti, hun er feminist, avhengig av sosiale medier og vil ikke ha det bra. Hun har blitt seksuelt trakassert av Oscar og outer ham på nettet.Men under pandemi og lockdown, med internett som eneste klippe, tvinger det seg fram uventede vennskap mellom dem – og en kime til raushet og selvinnsikt.Despentes, forfatteren av Vernon Subutex som gikk sin seiersgang verden over, er tilbake med en forrykende, sprelsk og varm roman om tiden vi lever i.

Rebecca har rundet de 50 år, hun er skuespiller, stadig lige smuk og forførende, men er ved at blive gammel; den rene død for en skuespillerindes karriere. Oscar er forfatter, har skrevet én succesfuld bog og er nu væltet fuldstændig omkuld af en MeToo-skandale. Og så har han svinet Rebecca til offentligt. De to indleder en hadefuld korrespondance, men en fælles relation til Oscars søster åbner op for en uventet ærlig udveksling. De deler deres livshistorier, som begge begyndte i samme forstad til Paris, var præget af fattigdom og hårde kår, og som på en måde endte hver sit sted, hhv. som berømt og feteret skuespillerinde og en fældet hvid mandlig forfatter, MeToo-samfundets absolutte taber. Og alligevel er de overraskende ens: De er begge dybt ensomme, sidder fast i et misbrug, de gerne vil ud af, lever i deres forliste forholds skygger, i den rene desillusion. Indtil venskabet spirer frem og viser dem vejen ud. Kære fuckhoved er en roman om at blive udstødt af det samfund, man endelig havde tilkæmpet sig en plads i, om ensomhed, desillusion og misbrug, men også om håbet trods alt, og om et venskab, der spirer frem på trods af at have alle odds imod sig. Denne bog er oversat af François-Eric Grodin