With a foreword by Maggie Nelson an introduction from Frieze editor Andrew Durbin and
afterword from Edmund White ' Unforgettable heartbreaking' New York Times 'Brilliant' -
Dazed 'As brutal as it is elegant' - Neil Bartlett 'Electrifying' - Colm Tóibín 'Dazzling' -
Katherine Angel After being diagnosed with AIDS Hervé Guibert wrote this devastating darkly
humorous and personal novel chronicling three months in the penultimate year of the narrator's
life. In the wake of his friend Muzil's death he goes from one quack doctor to another from
holidays to test centres and charts the highs and lows of trying to cheat death. On
publication in 1990 the novel scandalized French media which quickly identified Muzil as
Guibert's close friend Michel Foucault. The book became a bestseller and Guibert a celebrity.
The book has since attained a cult following for its tender fragmented and beautifully written
accounts of illness friendship sex art and everyday life. It catapulted Guibert into
notoriety and sealed his reputation as a writer of shocking precision and power.
