Lili is Crying (Paperback)

Kate Briggs

ISBN 10: 1804271675 / ISBN 13: 9781804271674

Published by Fitzcarraldo Editions, London, 2025

About this Item

Paperback. Lili is Crying, Helene Bessette's debut novel, explores the fraughtness and depth of the troubling relationship between Lili and her mother Charlotte. With a near-mythic quality, Bessette's stripped-back prose evokes at once the pain of thwarted love - of desire run cold - and the promise of renewal. Lauded by critics on its initial publication in 1953 for its boundary-pushing style, Lili is Crying marked the beginning of a singular writing career. Bessette's work is translated into English for the first time here by Windham-Campbell Prize-winning author and translator Kate Briggs. Lili is Crying, Helene Bessette's debut novel, originally published in France in 1953 and translated into English here for the first time, explores the fraughtness and depth of a troubling mother-daughter relationship, the pain of thwarted love and the promise of renewal. Shipping may be from multiple locations in the US or from the UK, depending on stock availability.

Seller Inventory # 9781804271674

Bibliographic Details

• Title: Lili is Crying (Paperback)
• Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions, London
• Publication Date: 2025
• Language: English
• ISBN 10: 1804271675
• ISBN 13: 9781804271674
• Binding: Paperback
• Condition: new

About this title

Synopsis

Lili is Crying, Hélène Bessette's debut novel, explores the fraughtness and depth of the troubling relationship between Lili and her mother Charlotte. With a near-mythic quality, Bessette's stripped-back prose evokes at once the pain of thwarted love - of desire run cold - and the promise of renewal. Lauded by critics on its initial publication in 1953 for its boundary-pushing style, unusual economy of expression, strange humour and sheer vivacity, Lili is Crying announces Bessette's singular take on the 'poetic novel'. This edition marks the very first translation of Bessette's work into English, by Windham-Campbell Prize-winning author and translator Kate Briggs.

About the Authors

Hélène Bessette (1918-2000) published thirteen novels with Gallimard between 1953 and 1973, won the Cazes prize in 1954 and was twice in the running for the Goncourt prize and the Médicis prize.

Kate Briggs grew up in Somerset, UK, and lives and works in Rotterdam, NL, where she founded and co-runs the writing and publishing project 'Short Pieces That Move'. She is the translator of two volumes of Roland Barthes's lecture and seminar notes at the Collège de France: The Preparation of the Novel and How to Live Together, both published by Columbia University Press. This Little Art, her genre-bending essay on the art of translation, was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in 2017. In 2021, she was awarded a Windham-Campbell Prize. Her debut novel, The Long Form, was published by Fitzcarraldo Editions in 2023 and shortlisted for the Goldsmiths Prize the same year.