In just a few years, Édouard Louis has established himself as one of the most distinct and political literary voices of France.

His latest novel, Qui a tué mon père, or Who Killed My Father, has recently been published in Norwegian and English translations. Here, he writes about his father’s broken body. He recognizes the same broken, French working class body in the Yellow vests movement that have dominated international news since last fall.

To what extent does the law offer justice to the citizens, and to what extent is the law and the power of the police used to traumatize people and keep them down? Geoffroy de Lagasnerie is a French academic and intellectual, whose 2018 publication Judge and punish came after he for several years had followed a number of trials.

Lagasnerie has also been actively engaged in the movement Justice pour Adama, created to discover the truth in what happened when 24-year old Adama Traoré lost his life in 2017 while in police custody. Around 15 people die every year at the hands of French police, and often, those affected are poor and black French citizens.

What does this police violence against blacks say about the official French view of black people? And how can we understand the movement Gilet Jaunets – the Yellow vests?

Artistic director at the House of Literature Andreas Liebe Delsett will meet Louis and Lagasnerie in conversation. The event will be in English.

Who Killed My Father began as Louis’s contribution to the commissioned work The Political Body, which premiered at the House of Literature in 2017. Louis has since expanded the text into the novel of the same name.