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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 AngelAfter 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.
About the author
Hervé Guibert (1955-1991) was a writer, photographer and filmmaker. Among his many pieces of writing, To the Friend caused a scandal and quickly became his most famous work. He finished three more books, including The Compassion Protocol, and a film, La Pudeur ou L'impudeur, before he died aged 36, only one year after the publication of To the Friend.
Summary
The cult classic that describes with devastating, darkly comic clarity the experience of living with and dying from AIDS.
Foreword
The cult classic that describes with devastating, darkly comic clarity the experience of living with and dying from AIDS
