Philippe Besson is an author, screenwriter, and playwright. His first novel, In the Absence of Men, was awarded the Emmanuel-Robles Prize in 2001, and he is also the author of, among others, Late Autumn (Grand Prize RTL-Lire), A Boy from Italy, and The Atlantic House. In 2017 he published Lie With Me, which has sold more than 120,000 copies and was awarded the Maisons de la Presse Prize, and A Character from a Novel, an intimate portrait of Emmanuel Macron during his presidential campaign. His novels have been translated into twenty different languages.
Molly Ringwald's writing has appeared in The New Yorker, The New York Times, The Guardian, and Vogue, and she is the author of the bestselling novel-in-stories When It Happens to You.
"There's much book-to-filmstar appeal in this moving, well-plotted
tale: Elle dubbed it "the French Brokeback Mountain"; there's
something of Call Me by Your Name's Elio in Philippe, who lives in
the books he reads and writes; and actress and writer Ringwald ably
translates."
--Booklist
"Moving ... Besson's writing and Ringwald's smooth translation
provide emotional impact."
--Publishers Weekly "Besson is a thoughtful writer who can strike
home with vivid imagery . . . . [and] deftly translated [by
Ringwald]."
--Kirkus
"I remember the movement of his hips pressing against the
pinball machine. This one sentence had me in its grip until the
end. Two young men find each other, always fearing that life itself
might be the villain standing in their way. A stunning and
heart-gripping tale."
--Andre Aciman, author of Call Me by Your Name
"This is a gorgeous fever dream of a book. Ringwald's
translation does elegant justice to Besson's balance of beauty and
despair, and to his interrogations of memory and longing. Lie With
Me positively glows in the dark."
--Rebecca Makkai, author of The Great Believers "Lie With
Me is an exquisite whisper that lingers long after you've
finished reading it."
--Kevin Kwan, author of Crazy Rich Asians and China
Rich Girlfriend "In spare yet evocative prose, elegantly translated
by Molly Ringwald, Philippe Besson relates the erotic awakening of
two adolescent boys in a small French town in the 1980s. Lie With
Me captures their world with the grainy poignancy of an old high
school yearbook, while movingly conveying the quintessential human
dramas of longing, love, and letting go."
--Caroline Weber, author of Proust's Duchess: How Three
Celebrated Women Captured the Imagination of Fin-de-siecle Paris
"The uncanny thrill of Philippe Besson's Lie With Me rises up from
Molly Ringwald's elegant translation with the intensity of meeting
a stranger on a train who tells you a single unforgettable story
and then leaves. And his voice haunts me still."
--Alexander Chee, author of How to Write an Autobiographical
Novel and The Queen of the Night "A timeless love story, written
with the unmistakable ache of truth. Molly Ringwald's translation
is as clear and beautiful as the story it depicts. You'll read it
in a night, but its exquisite heartbreak will linger."
--David Ebershoff, author of The Danish Girl and The
19th Wife "At first erotic and joyous, ultimately elegiac and
haunting, Lie With Me is a deceptively slender book as big as life
itself."
--Rumaan Alam, the author of That Kind of Mother and
Rich and Pretty "This gorgeous, aching novel captures all of the
fear and freedom of young desire. Besson's sharp, compressed prose
gets right to the heart of what it means to have to fall in love in
secret. Thanks to Ringwald's pitch-perfect translation, this
affecting and sexy elegy may well be the best gay love story in
contemporary fiction. I dare you to read it without crying."
--Christopher Bollen, author of Orient and The
Destroyers "An intense, unforgettable novel, alive with the ache of
longing and loss."
--Sarah Waters, bestselling, award-winning author of The
Little Stranger and Fingersmith "It has been years since
anything moved me as much as Lie With Me. It will become a
classic."
--Jonathan Coe, author of Middle England and The
Winshaw Legacy "A beautiful, shattering novel about desire and
shame, about passionate youth and the regrets of age."
--Olivia Laing, author of Crudo and The Lonely City "A
deeply moving depiction of first love, both tender and
elegiac."
--John Boyne, author of A Ladder to the Sky and The
Heart's Invisible Furies "Devastating and tender; this is the book
I wish I'd read when I was 15, and a book I'm glad to have as a
companion now."
--Andrew McMillan, award-winning author of Physical
"[A] study in intimacy ... the novel captures the full tragedy of
the closet ... Equal parts Andre Aciman and Marguerite Duras."
--Ayten Tartici, The New York Times Book
Review
"An elegiac tale of first, hidden love between two
teen-age boys who have no chance of a shared future, Lie With Me
sold more than a hundred thousand copies in France, where it won
several prizes and is being made into a movie. Elle deemed it "the
French Brokeback Mountain" ... The book reads like a photograph,
faded but composed: the bac, linden trees, a green Simca 1100, Lino
Ventura. We can see even if we don't know. Call it a memoir of a
memory."
--Lauren Collins, The New Yorker "This Year's Call Me
by Your Name Is French: More Meta But Just As Hot ... Lie
With Me is the story of a successful (unnamed) French novelist ...
who catches a glimpse of what he thinks is a past lover in a hotel.
Triggered by the sighting, he traces the story of his secret
high-school affair with that lover: It was brief in tenure but
formed the mold into which he has since tried to press every other
romantic relationship."
--Hillary Kelly, Vulture "One of the best novels you'll read
this year was actually published in France in 2017. Translated by
the actress and author Molly Ringwald, Lie With Me by Philippe
Besson brilliantly reminds readers of the joys and agonies of
love."
--Jeffrey Masters, The Advocate "[A] tender, sensuous
novel."
--New York Times Book Review, 9 New Books We Recommend
This Week "Lie with Me succeeds as a novel because of Besson's
graceful writing, beautifully translated by Ringwald. Besson is a
gifted stylist, and he infuses Philippe's story with the right
notes of sadness and longing. . . . perfectly captures what it's
like to be young and in love ... [a] lovely novel."
--Michael Schaub, NPR.org "Want to be hip, cool and on
trend? Read Phillippe Besson's story of young first love, Lie With
Me, masterfully translated from the French by Molly Ringwald ...
good and sad and wonderfully beautiful."
--Ciaran Freeman, America Magazine "French author Philippe
Besson's international best seller Lie With Me is now available
Stateside thanks to actor, author, and erstwhile Parisian Molly
Ringwald's fluid translation. Told in three parts, the slender
novel recounts a clandestine romance between two teenage boys in
1984 ... More than 20 years after his last encounter with Thomas,
Philippe runs into his former lover's doppelganger, and a chance
discovery shatters the gentle reverie of the past. Small ripples
can make the fiercest waves."
--Lauren Mechling, Vogue "A devastating read about first love
... The novel is so irresistible, it can't be put down ... Lie With
Me is the must-read gay novel of the summer."
--Gary Kramer, Philadelphia Gay News "Lie with Me
will enthrall the reader from start to finish. The prose is so spot
on. Besson seems incapable of wasting a word. His descriptions, his
feelings, and his memories are precise and captivating."
--Declan Henry, New York Journal of Books "Introspective and
evocative, Lie With Me is an absorbing story about passionate love
thwarted by class differences and homophobia. The slim novel takes
on a great deal in a short amount of space and establishes Molly
Ringwald as a skilled translator."
--Michael Kaler, Lambda Literary "Besson's Lie With
Me--translated from French to English by none other than actress
Molly Ringwald!--tells the story of Philippe, a gay man who
recounts his heady, all-consuming first love as a teen growing up
in France in the 1980s. The Andre Aciman-approved coming-of-age
tale has already racked up a slew of accolades, including notable
mentions from The New York Times Book Review, the Wall Street
Journal, The Advocate, and more. It's a No. 1 best-seller en
France, too."
--NewNowNext "For your friend who can't stop talking about
Call Me By Your Name ... Say hi to Philippe Besson's Lie With Me.
Originally published in French, Molly Ringwald translated the book
for English audiences this year. There's a love affair between two
teenage boys in 1984 France and it's pretty much perfect."
--TheSkimm "There's a reason why Lie With Me is often
compared to Call Me By Your Name. In this slim French novel, an
unnamed author is prompted to revisit his first love affair with a
man. All relationships since have paled. And yes, it's translated
from French by that Molly Ringwald."
--Elena Nicolaou, Refinery 29, 35 Outstanding LGBTQ+ Books Of
2019 "People call Lie With Me, a 1984 teenage romance novella,
the French Brokeback Mountain. A sexy, pure, and radiant story,
this book has been republished for US readers, and translated by
Molly Ringwald. Yes, that Molly Ringwald! This is a great gift
book, a quick plane-read, and honestly, better than Brokeback
Mountain. Don't miss it!"
--Fran Tirado, Out.com, 8 Queer Books to Read in April "A
French bestseller likened to Call Me By Your Name and Brokeback
Mountain, the novel marks the first English translation by the
actress and writer Ms. Ringwald, a longtime Francophile."
--Rebecca Makkai, Wall Street Journal, The 10 Books
You'll Want to Read This Spring "Molly Ringwald translated this
French Call Me By Your Name-esque novel about two teenagers in 1984
Bordeaux as they fall in love in the shadows, leaving one of them
to reflect on the relationship many years later."
--OprahMag.com, 30 of the Best LGBTQ Books in 2019 "It's as
immediately involving and heart-breaking a tale of gay first love
as I can recall... direct and devastating."
--The Bay Area
Reporter
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