Virginie Despentes

Valentine, the troubled daughter of a well-off but dysfunctional Parisian family, vanishes on her way to school. Inexperienced private detective Lucie Toledo is hired to find the missing teenager, and enlists the help of a formidable agent with a past, known to her friends as the Hyena. Their quest, from Paris to Barcelona and back, uncovers a rich cast of characters whose paths have crossed Valentine's, leading to an alarming climax. Part political thriller, part road-movie, part romance, the latest novel by subversive writer and film-maker Virginie Despentes won the Prix Renaudot 2010 for the pitiless gaze it directs at society in the age of the internet.

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.

Gloria est convaincue qu'à chaque fois qu'elle s'approche trop près du bord, elle saura faire pirouette arrière. Seulement, plus le temps passe, plus elle devient championne dans l'art de souffrir... Il pleut sur Nancy, sa ville natale, et Gloria, à trente-cinq ans passés, est de nouveau SDF, avec pour unique point d'échouage Le Royal, « son » bar, le seul endroit où elle puisse librement traîner sa déprime et sa hargne, trouver chez qui squatter, et boire sans limite de crédit. Mais ce soir-là, c'est un passé bien plus douloureux qu'elle revit en direct, malgré elle : dans la rue, elle croise Eric Muir, désormais parisien et présentateur star du petit écran. Eric, sans qui elle aurait sans doute brutalement sombré, vingt ans plus tôt, quand, adolescente difficile, elle a été internée en hôpital psychatrique pour un temps indéterminé, par des parents dépassés, persuadés de faire son bien. Eric, son premier amour, fils d'une famille de la grande bourgeoisie de Nancy, avec qui elle a vécu son aventure punk. Eric aujourd'hui confortablement installé dans sa voiture avec chauffeur, et qu'elle voudrait sinon feindre d'ignorer, du moins englober dans sa haine du monde et d'elle-même ; mais lui ne l'entend pas ainsi... Avec une dureté de ton qu'on lui a connu à ses débuts, mais aussi une tendresse certaine pour ses personnages, Virginie Despentes fait le récit d'une adolescence dramatique, marquée au fer rouge par l'incompréhension et la bêtise de parents incapables d'amour véritable, brisée par la violence et la toute-puissance des institutions. Bye bye Blondie est également le portrait rageur d'une femme conditionnée par le manque et l'abandon, et qui ne sait plus vivre que dans la destruction aveugle de tout ce qui pourrait mettre un terme à ses souffrances.

Da autora mais provocadora da literatura francesa, um romance atual sobre a violência das relações humanas. Rebecca tem cinquenta anos, é uma atriz famosa e, embora se ache mais atraente do que nunca, começa a sentir na sua própria pele a discriminação da indústria cinematográfica. Oscar é um escritor só um pouco mais novo do que ela, cuja vida pessoal e carreira se encontram num caos ao descobrir-se no centro do mais recente escândalo MeToo. Zoé Katana, feminista e bloguista, é a jovem vítima que regressou do passado para finalmente ajustar contas com ele. Os três irão iniciar um diálogo tenso, por meio de chat, e descobrir como uma amizade improvável pode nascer entre pessoas que, à primeira vista, nada têm que ver umas com as outras, e como essa força desconhecida as pode ajudar a lidar melhor com as suas ansiedades, neuroses, vícios, complexos, vergonhas e medos. Regresso aguardado e festejado de Virginie Despentes, Caro Idiota é um romance epistolar dos nossos tempos que aborda temas e episódios atuais, um livro de raiva e consolo sobre a violência das relações humanas e sobre as posturas ideológicas às quais estamos agarrados, mesmo quando há muito deixaram de nos fazer compreender não só a realidade mas também a velocidade e irreversibilidade da mudança. Os elogios da crí «A escritora que melhor compreende a nossa época.» Radio France «Luminoso» Le Monde

The French novel taking the world by an ultracontemporary Dangerous Liaisons about sex, feminism, and addiction. Dear Dickhead, I read the piece you posted on your Insta. You’re like a pigeon shitting on my shoulder as you flap past. you've had your fifteen minutes of fame. The proof? The fact that I bothered to write 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 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.

Virginie Despentesi “King Kongi teooria” on kõrgelt hinnatud kirjaniku memuaar ning samas ka manifest, mis raputab ja provotseerib. Oma pungilikus stiilis kirjutab “Vernon Subutexi” autor avameelselt nii oma skandaalsest minevikust kui ka naiste ja meeste suhetest ühiskonnas laiemalt. Raamat on hea teejuht kõigile, kes tunnevad, et need asjad võiksid natuke teistmoodi käia. On rõõmustav vaimukõrvas kuulata, kuidas tark ja vihane naine räägib (vahepeal ka skandeerib!) ausalt, arusaadavalt ja vingerdamata asjadest, mida minugi elus ette on tulnud. Mehejutt, Virginie Despentes. —Kaisa Ling, muusik ja kirjandusajakirjanik Feminismil on tuhat nägu. Aga üks neist on Virginie Despentes. "King Kongi teooria" on tsentrifugaalne pööris, mis sünnitab rea uusi nägemusi. Eelarvamused murenevad ja murduvad. Võimas! —Hasso Krull, luuletaja

Gives an account of how Despentes became notorious: reviled and admired in equal measure for her rape-revenge novel turned film, "Baise-Moi", she is the poster girl for modern female rebellion. This book describes the ways her ideas have been shaped by her experiences of rape, prostitution and working in the porn industry.

J’écris de chez les moches, pour les moches, les frigides, les mal baisées, les imbaisables, toutes les exclues du grand marché à la bonne meuf, aussi bien que pour les hommes qui n’ont pas envie d’être protecteurs, ceux qui voudraient l’être mais ne savent pas s’y prendre, ceux qui ne sont pas ambitieux, ni compétitifs, ni bien membrés. Parce que l’idéal de la femme blanche séduisante qu’on nous brandit tout le temps sous le nez, je crois bien qu’il n’existe pas. V.D. En racontant pour la première fois comment elle est devenue Virginie Despentes, l’auteur de Baise-moi conteste les discours bien-pensants sur le viol, la prostitution, la pornographie. Manifeste pour un nouveau féminisme.

With humor, rage, and confessional detail, Virginie Despentes—in her own words “more King Kong than Kate Moss”—delivers a highly charged account of women’s lives today. She explodes common attitudes about sex and gender, and shows how modern beauty myths are ripe for rebelling against. Using her own experiences of rape, prostitution, and working in the porn industry as a jumping-off point, she creates a new space for all those who can’t or won’t obey the rules.

122pages. in8. Broché.

Stunning Claudine and gloomy Pauline pretend to be one person so that Claudine can be famous, but just as things take off, Claudine commits suicide. Pauline hatches a new scheme, taking on her dead sister’s identity, inhabiting her apartment, and reading her emails—slowly realizing the cost of femininity is to dazzle on the outside while rotting on the inside.

«He leído lo que publicaste en tu cuenta de Insta. Eres como si una paloma se me cagara en el hombro: una guarrada asquerosa. Buáá buáá buáá soy una mierdecilla que no le interesa a nadie y berreo como un chihuahua para ver si me hago notar. Vivan las redes sociales: has logrado tus quince minutos de gloria. La prueba: te estoy escribiendo». Rebecca, una actriz en la cincuentena conuna carrera en declive, responde con estas duras palabras a Oscar, un novelista cuarentón que acaba de insultarla en redes sociales. Al darse cuenta de que ya se conocían, nace entre ellos una correspondencia en la que irán deponiendo las armas. Ambos recordarán el pasado y su afición por las drogas, hasta que Oscar es acusado de acoso sexual por su antigua responsable de prensa. Novela de rabia y consuelo, Querido capullo es un incisivo análisis de nuestra sociedad a través del punto de vista de un hombre cancelado, una actriz olvidada y una joven acusadora, en un relato que demuestra que la amistad puede hacer frente a cualquier debilidad humana. En una novela que está revolucionando las letras francesas, Despentes despliega todas las aristas del #MeToo, de los feminismos, de las redes sociales, de las adicciones y de lo que significa envejecer en nuestra sociedad.

“Escric en nom de les lletges, per a les lletges, les velles, les camioneres, les frígides, les mal follades, les infollables, les histèriques, les tarades, per a totes les excloses del gran mercat de les ties bones. I començo per aquí perquè quedi clar: no em disculpo per res, no he vingut a queixar-me.” A partir de les seves pròpies vivències, Virginie Despentes elabora un manifest feminista combatiu i demolidor, un text desacomplexat i contundent que ataca sense pèls a la llengua el discurs benpensant sobre l’experiència femenina, el matrimoni, la maternitat i altres temes tan polèmics com la violació, la prostitució i la pornografia. Una injecció d’adrenalina. Amb pròleg de la poetessa Maria Cabrera.

Teoría King Kong es uno de los grandes libros de referencia del feminismo y de la teoría de género, un incisivo ensayo en el que Despentes comparte su propia experiencia para hablarnos sin tapujos ni concesiones sobre la prostitución, la violación, la represión del deseo, la maternidad y la pornografía, y para contribuir al derrumbe de los cimientos patriarcales de la sociedad actual. «Escribo desde la fealdad, y para las feas, las viejas, las camioneras, las frígidas, las mal folladas, las infollables, todas las excluidas del gran mercado de la buena chica, pero también para los hombres que no tienen ganas de proteger, para los que querrían hacerlo pero no saben cómo, los que no son ambiciosos, ni competitivos, ni la tienen grande. Porque el ideal de la mujer blanca, seductora, que nos ponen delante de los ojos es posible incluso que no exista.»

Gives an account of how Despentes became notorious: reviled and admired in equal measure for her rape-revenge novel turned film, "Baise-Moi", she is the poster girl for modern female rebellion. This book describes the ways her ideas have been shaped by her experiences of rape, prostitution and working in the porn industry.

Vernon Subutex: the man, the myth, the punk-lit sensation. 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. Virginie Despentes is a writer and filmmaker, and former maid, sex worker, and freelance rock journalist. Her first novel, Baise-Moi, the controversial rape-revenge story, was published in 1992 and adapted for film in 2000. Upon release it became the first film to be banned in France for twenty-eight years. She is the author of over fifteen further works, including Apocalypse Baby (2010) and Bye Bye Blondie (2004), and the autobiographical essay, King Kong Theory (2006). Part social epic, part punk rock thriller, Vernon Subutex is a remarkable portrait of contemporary society... written with a fury that hits right to the bone — Christine Ferniot, Télérama Vernon Subutex is a great novel because, quite simply, it disturbs you. Despentes is an extraordinary writer — François Busnel, Express Sex, drugs and 90s punk rock: Vernon Subutex is the Comédie Humaine for our time, produced by the furious talent of Virginie Despentes — Laurence Houot, Culturebox A masterful blending of characters, voices and plots with an undeniable sense of changing rhythms. This is not just a novel, it's an electrocardiogram — Etienne de Montety, Figaro A mind-blowing portrait of contemporary French society — Nelly Kaprièlian, Les Inrocks A vast mural of the world today. We all knew Despentes could write, but we were not expecting this — Frédéric Beigbeder, Figaro magazine

Qui est Vernon Subutex ? Une légende urbaine. Un ange déchu. Un disparu qui ne cesse de ressurgir. Le détenteur d’un secret. Le dernier témoin d’un monde disparu. L’ultime visage de notre comédie inhumaine. Notre fantôme à tous.