Join us for the launch of How to Leave the World, by Marouane Bakhti, translated by Lara Vergnaud (Divided 2024). A fragmentary work about growing up as a diaspora kid in rural France, Marouane Bakhti's debut novel explores shame, forgiveness, desire and identity. 

The reading will be followed by a conversation between Maroune Bakhti and Oscar Mathieu.

Schedule
19:30-21:00 Reading and conversation

About How to Leave the World
Everyone is asking about his identity. Gay? Muslim? French? Moroccan? Instead of choosing a side, he writes a book. A book about the forest and the city, Paris and Tangiers, shame and forgiveness, dating apps and spiritual discovery. A book about growing up as a diaspora kid in rural France, with desires that want to emerge at any cost. Told in mesmerising prose, How to Leave the World is a beautiful non-answer.

“A rare book that depicts the isolation and poetry of rural life.” Annie Ernaux

Find the book here: https://rile.space/books/how-to-leave-the-world

About Marouane Bakhti
Marouane Bakhti is a writer and arts journalist. Born in Nantes, France to a Moroccan father and a French mother, he studied history and journalism at the Sorbonne. He writes criticism for Mouvement magazine and lives in Paris. How to Leave the World is his first novel.

About Oscar Mathieu
Oscar Mathieu le Bussy is a cultural worker based in Brussels. He performs, writes, draws, translates, tattoos, researches. His focal points of interest include self-organization, faggotry, and dogs.