Stop the lies.

When Philippe was little, his mother used to tell him to stop making things up. But he built a career on stories and is now an experienced writer. One day, in a hotel in Bordeaux, he runs into a young man who bears a striking resemblance to his first love. This prompts Philippe to look back on his relationship with a boy named Thomas, whom he has never forgotten, and to tell the story for the first time without a single embellishment.

In 1984, they were both seventeen and in their last year of secondary school in Barbezieux. They couldn't show how well they knew each other, but they stole every moment they could to be together. Their fateful love lasted for six months before they had to part forever.

This novel with autobiographical elements tells a story of adolescence and captivates with its modesty. This, along with its polished literary style, contributes to the poignancy of this powerful love story. The book was also adapted into the 2022 film Lie with Me.

Philippe Besson (1967), a writer, screenwriter, and playwright, won the Emmanuel Roblès Prize in 2001 for his first novel, En l’absence des hommes (In the Absence of Men). This launched a prolific literary career that now includes around twenty books, translated into many languages. For example, in 2003, Besson published the novel L'Arrière-saison (An Italian Brother), which was nominated for the prestigious Goncourt Prize and the Prix Médicis. In 2017, he published the autobiographical novella Arrête avec tes mensonges (Lie with Me), which soon became a bestseller and won the Maisons de la Presse award.