You Will Not Have My Hate - by Antoine Leiris (Paperback)

About the Book

English translation from the French title: "Vous n'aurez pas ma haine."

Book Synopsis

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - "On Friday night you stole the life of an exceptional person, the love of my life, the mother of my son, but you will not have my hate."

On November 13, 2015, Antoine Leiris's wife, Hélène Muyal-Leiris, was killed by terrorists while attending a rock concert at the Bataclan Theater in Paris, in the deadliest attack on France since World War II. Three days later, Leiris wrote an open letter addressed directly to his wife's killers, which he posted on Facebook. He refused to be cowed or to let his seventeen-month-old son's life be defined by Hélène's murder. He refused to let the killers have their way: "For as long as he lives, this little boy will insult you with his happiness and freedom." Instantly, that short Facebook post caught fire, and was reported on by newspapers and television stations all over the world. In his determination to honor the memory of his wife, he became an international hero to everyone searching desperately for a way to deal with the horror of the Paris attacks and the grim shadow cast today by the threat of terrorism.

Now Leiris tells the full story of his grief and struggle. You Will Not Have My Hate is a remarkable, heartbreaking, and, indeed, beautiful memoir of how he and his baby son, Melvil, endured in the days and weeks after Hélène's murder. With absolute emotional courage and openness, he somehow finds a way to answer that impossible question: how can I go on? He visits Hélène's body at the morgue, has to tell Melvil that Mommy will not be coming home, and buries the woman he had planned to spend the rest of his life with.

Leiris's grief is terrible, but his love for his family is indomitable. This is the rare and unforgettable testimony of a survivor, and a universal message of hope and resilience. Leiris confronts an incomprehensible pain with a humbling generosity and grandeur of spirit. He is a guiding star for us all in these perilous times. His message--hate will be vanquished by love--is eternal.

Review Quotes

"An extraordinary read, honest, intimate and lightly poetic. It is a testament of love, loss and grief and also the often untold story of those who are left behind and must find a way to go on"--Irish Independent

"A book of exceptional grace... the most extraordinary account of an emotional journey" - Observer

"All about love and loss.... An astonishing feat... I defy anyone not to shed tears at least once when reading this book." - Sunday Times

"You Will Not Have My Hate is a courageous and profoundly life affirming manifesto that will live beyond any momentary victory of terrorism. How indestructible these beautiful words are... A heartbreaking eulogy." -New York Journal of Books

"In a world of anodyne literature, Antoine Leiris's You Will Not Have My Hate stands out like a flare in the night... A work of pure grace... Ultimately a book about language and its necessity as a means not just of making sense of unspeakable tragedy, but of surviving it." -- Interview Magazine

"Courageous and inspirational, without a wasted word." - Kirkus, starred review

"One of the most enduring and memorable messages after the deadly attack on Paris's Bataclan theater was written by journalist Antoine Leiris... This bracing, courageous, and utterly beautiful book shows us that he had much more to say." - 21 Must-Read Books for Fall, Elle.com

"This powerful one-sitting read speaks of a very specific grief to which many in the world feel connected."--Booklist

About the Author

Antoine Leiris is a journalist in Paris, and a former cultural commentator for France Info and France Bleu. You Will Not Have My Hate is his first book.

Translated from French by Sam Taylor, the author of The Republic of Trees, The Amnesiac and The Island at the End of the World. He has translated more than a dozen novels from the French, including Laurent Binet's HHhH and Maylis de Kerangal's The Heart.