Lie with Me: A Novel

Receive this book in a very good condition, Nice packaging.

Well packed , I got a phone book and I got the hardcover for just 575 rs

5 🌟Annoyingly imperfectly perfect and poignant, I just couldn't keep my eyes and mind away from the very first sentence of this book. I haven't read anything that is this breezy and tugging. The words are raw, the emotions direct and the characters rather bound to secrecy all their lives. I got completely immersed in these mere few pages, got so lost and covered with emotions in between the lines that I simply had to finish up this book in one sitting. And yes, it's my perfect kind of read: precise, character driven, straightforward with issues that matter. I felt the pain and the beauty of the three main characters. The words are striking. The lines are so quotable. The short book is just full of feelings and emotions; and most of all real.The story spans a lifetime of decades starting it when he was seventeen. I thought this was going to be just a book about young adult/lgbt/coming of age but damn, it turned out to be lot more than that. It talks about LGBT issues of course, but also homophobia, suicide, religion and writing in depths.I love this book so much. Easily one of my most memorable reads of the year.#lgbtqreads #lgbtq🌈 #bookrecommendations #january2020reads #memorableread #poignant #liewithme #liewithmebook #phillippebesson

Of the recent books I have tried to review I couldn't write enough accolades to the astounding work of Philippe Besson and ofcourse Molly Ringwald (translater) for 'Lie with me' published by Penguin Random House UK is absolutely heart touching and the writing is raw, poignant with beautiful flow. It literally has no flaw. The book discovers love affair of the author and Thomas Andreau from teenage to the end of their lives which is well defined in the book although they separate at early age. Memories have a strong impact on all of us. The constant fear of being revealed gay suffers throughout entire novel and will get you chills.The book is painfully beautiful. The idea of leaving, staying and loving are expressed remarkably. I couldn't stand to the idea of Thomas dying with such tragic sorrow. This book is sure to touch your soul and make you cry by the end.The tone of book is lucid, sharp and sometimes tragically and sarcastically funny over hard times.This book is a classic!

I wonder if it was a fiction or a memoir; the candid nature of this prose, the honesty that bled through its pages. In a matter of three hours and thirty-five minutes, Besson has narrated what it was to be a gay youth, a man in a heterosexual world. Yes, it’s a love story too. The story of first love, a homosexual love, to be precise, because it isn’t the same as a man-woman’s love at all. A kind of love Aciman told us about in CMBYN. But Besson was also obsessed with youth, the impermanence of it, the vulnerabilities, the choices, the lies, the happiness and the heartbreaks youth meant/mean for gay men. Times may have changed, structures may have acquired newer dimensions; what remains is the forbidden, silent history that continues to echo in heterosexual spaces. This book and many others scare me. They make me anxious of the life I have ahead of me. It tells me of a life out there written by hurt and loneliness. Of longing, so desperate and intense that would only be quenched by creative endeavours, or ranging ambitions. But what of the heart, the body that seeks to lean into another? The sighing days and nights. Although I hope this book remains a story of bygone days, I cannot thank Besson for writing this, Molly Ringwald for brilliantly translating such honest emotions and Jacques Roy for giving it the voice that gave birth to Thomas and Philippe before my eyes.

There isn’t enough gay literature in the world. Till there is. Till you chance upon a book so strong and uplifting and melancholic at the same time, that you don’t know how what to make of your emotions anymore. Life is also nothing but a series of the ones that got away. The ones that remind us of what could have been, almost in another life.Lie with Me is that kind of book about first love, its insecurities, its jealousies, and with a longing so deep that it will strike you hard, with the turn of every page.Come to think of it, it doesn’t matter whether this book had straight or gay lovers, the story is riveting, moving, and so powerful that one would only focus on that. It is universal, because love is that way. The loss of a loved one is beyond hurtful. The idea of a loved one going away, leaving you behind to start a new life is heartbreaking for anyone, gay or straight. Given that, Lie with Me speaks to everyone. The language of love and loss is known to all.Back to the book – it is about a love affair between two teenage boys in 1980s France and how then it has repercussions right till 2016. The book spans thirty-six years – but it is the affair part of the book that hits you the most. At least that’s what happened to me while I read it.Philippe and Thomas meet as boys and the affair takes place by chance, altering their worlds, ridden by passion, and the understanding that this kind of love better be hidden. Besson writes honestly. There is this nostalgia – this melancholy feeling of abandonment that is constant throughout this short novel. Everything is brought to life. The touches, the smells, the betrayals, the small jealousies, the joy of being together, the said and more so the unsaid. Besson’s writing hurts you. It is meant to, I guess. It brought back all the memories of my first love – everything all rolled into one. Some happy, some sad, and mostly melancholic. Just the way it should have happened while reading this book.Lie with Me is a book that stays with you. It sticks itself on your existence. It speaks intimately and whispers in your ears – secrets long gone by, secrets we think we have buried till they resurface, threatening the fabric of our being. It tells you stories of love, of happiness, of what it felt like – of summer sun, and how it felt when you first made love and let passion overtake everything else. Molly Ringwald brings to life a translation that I am grateful for and will always be. We need to tell stories of all kind. We need stories to relate to. We need stories that make us want to tell someone that we love them, for now.

It’s only been recent that I have found the author Philippe. But his words and stories are so carefully and painfully crafted. This book is short, too short but maybe that’s the point. His stories are often about fierce passion; first loves. This story does an amazing job portraying the different struggles of homosexuality. More than that it is a perfect example of so many first loves. They are often chaotic, confusing, passionate and too short. First loves are small blimps in our lives yet they stay with us forever. I encourage ANYONE who is thinking about reading this to please read it.

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Surprised by the translator but thought since I can read French I am buying it in French. This is a sad coming of age story but not typical. The shortness of the work gives it a breathlessness. It reminded me of the extremely short story by Bernard Cooper, "Capiche?", 5 paragraphs. I liked it from the beginning and read only three pages per day to make it last. I also bought it for a friend as a gift. I still do not know if it is true or false, I am hoping for the latter. Good story writing, excellent writing.

This is a heartbreaker of a love story between two young men aged 17/18 years old,growing up in rural France in 1984. Phillipe is the clever son of the school Principal and Thomas is the only son of a local farmer, older and wiser to the ways of the world than Phillipe.Phillipe has taken notice of this aloof older boy in his school, he has formed a crush, even though he has never spoken to this boy, Thomas. When Thomas suddenly stops Phillipe in a deserted hallway at school and asks him to meet up in a secret place Phillipe is astounded but agrees.They meet in the school gym and Thomas confesses his feelings for Phillipe. Thomas initiates the sexual activity that takes place, and Phillipe quietly complies, even though all is completely uncharted territory for him.Thomas has always spoken of a ‘social barrier’ that exists between them, but Phillipe doesn’t agree. Thomas continues to call the shots in the growing relationship, saying the when and where to meet.Phillipe is more emotionally invested, but Thomas is just afraid to be who he is. He knows that Phillipe will leave the town when he graduates,and Thomas will have to stay to take over the farm.However, after graduation it is Thomas who disappears without a word to Phillipe. And that is when the story really takes off.I’ve not read this French writer, Phillipe Besson before, but I do like this book, which was translated by Molly Ringwald, an American actress from the 80’s, famous for ‘The Breakfast Club’ and I think,’Pretty in Pink’ and ‘ Sixteen Candles’ not 100% sure on latter. She did a beautiful job, the phrasing of the English seems to me to have retained its French-ness. There are Instances of intimacy between Phillipe and Thomas but not translated in a ‘steamy, hot’ manner here.It’s a beautiful story of love that will make you cry. It’s not available in KU, but the praise for this book was so high that I just had to buy it.

Couldn't put that book away after I started. I don't know how long I wished I ended differently. Thanks for letting us know