Lie With Me is a touching and raw portrayal of first love and all it entails, with all of its many highs and lows. The novel is framed as a recollection, and this gives it such a nostalgic feel, which also makes it all the more tragic when you realise how it all ends. The story is set in France in 1984 and it focuses on 17 year old Philippe, as he falls in love with a fellow student in his school, Thomas. The two quickly form a secret relationship, both physical and emotional, although there is never an explicit declaration of love, it's obvious that the two have a very unique bond which proves to be life changing and memorable for both of them.

Situations force them to part, with Philippe heading out into the world as he has always been a brilliant student and destined for great things and Thomas choosing to seek work abroad. The decision to part isn't so much a decision but something which has always seemed inevitable to both of them, they can't see it lasting so they make the most of the time they did have. There's a particularly beautiful passage of the last time they see each other and Philippe is taking a photograph of Thomas, and he simply smiles but it's like a goodbye.

Years after their parting, Phillipe sees a young man who bears a striking resemblance to Thomas and so runs after him. What follows is a moving view into what happened to Thomas in the intervening years and what his life has been like.

The whole way through the book feels so genuine and gorgeous, I can't describe it in words exactly but Lie With Me will stay with you and make you feel connected to the characters experiences as if they were your own. It's a rare piece of work which can make you feel so strongly for characters and situations you've never been in but Besson is such a talented writer he makes it happen just so.

It’s hard to put into words books that mess you up quite like this. In only about 150 pages, Philippe Besson decided to screw me over not once, but three times. This is a “do not go into this book expecting a happy ending” book. It’s one to read when you’re in the mood for an emotional battering. It is, quite honestly, bruising.

Lie With Me is a semi-autobiographical novel of a youthful love affair in 1980s France. The two boys, Thomas and Philippe, are subsequently separated following their bac exam, by years and miles, until Philippe happens across Thomas’ son in Bordeaux. But it is, in its way, a tragedy.

I probably cannot do justice to this book in describing the emotions it evokes. Even having given myself time to think it through I’m not sure how to discuss them. There’s a sense of yearning throughout the book, a sense that will ring so true for gay readers, like the book is somehow looking into your own heart and speaking what it finds there. It gets it in a way that will leave you breathless.

But there’s also an overwhelming feeling of hopelessness elicited by this book. The kind that makes you angry for what has been stolen from generations before. It’s like taking that pain and anger and putting it on the page – it’s not meant to have a happy ending, it’s meant to make you feel uncomfortable, in a way, to make you face up to the loss of generations of gay people. To make you realise (or remember) that this loneliness and hopelessness was the reality for so many people.

I don’t have a lot more to say about this book, mostly because you have to read it to understand for the most part. But it is definitely one that’ll stay with you for a long time, with just the echoes of the emotions you felt while reading.

Which is to say, go read this book.

What worked for me here was the story. This novella moves quickly - without ever feeling like it is just a rushing plot. I very much wanted to know what would happen next; what would become of the young lovers... and what would happen later on.
Told in 3 parts: 1984, 2003 and 2016, the book spends the bulk of the time in 1984, recounting the love story between the narrator, Philippe, and his classmate and first love, Thomas. Parts 2 and 3 shorter, but man, they are both equally intense and emotionally heavy. No spoilers, but the Part 3 made the whole book for me - I'm just, sunk.
What barely worked for me was the narrator. I just could not connect to his voice, it was too... cold? intellectual? blasé? for a book about a man recollecting first love lost. There were these diatribes about his unrelated life/professional experiences and tastes and I just didn't... care? I suppose that might be how certain people reflecting on the past would tell their story, but it undercut my investment in the narrator.
There is an element, not of unreliable narrator, persay - but some sort of metatextual interrogation on fact v. fiction and the lies we tell ourselves in reflection. This element was beautifully done and it comes to a head in Part 3 and the whole interaction just thrilled me.
The prose is also lovely and I wouldn't have known it was a work in translation if not for the big fuss made about Molly Ringwald being the translator (Iona would approve).

It is a beautiful story and my thanks to the author, publisher and NetGalley for the arc to review.

Such a clever title for this slim volume of forbidden love.
Memoir or fiction or a mixture of both, it is a compelling read of two boys coming of age.
Usually a story centring on two people, one subject and no subplots can be a little too bland, but Lie with Me needs to be told exclusively,so intensefing the secret, involvement they shared. The concise storytelling had more impact than diluting with other elements. Told with real passion and honestly, I raced through to the inevitable end.
A brilliant, poignant piece of writing

A fascinating read about a hidden young love affair in the early 80s between two young men. It was written from the heart, and I found it heart breaking. I am so pleased that times have changed and maybe if they had met today they could still be together.
I was taken back to that era by the wonderful writing and the description of the clothing and music. It is a rather short book but one that will stay with me for a very long time.
Thank you netgalley and penguin.

Lie With Me is the award-winning, bestselling French novel by Philippe Besson about an affair between two teenage boys in 1984 France and has been translated by Molly Ringwald.

This book maybe under 160 pages but it's a strong story about a love affair between two young men in the 80's.
The main characters are Philippe and Thomas. They came together in the last year of school and become very close. They have to hide their relationship from others who are close to them and meet each other in secret.

It's full of exquisite passages expressing the young men's longing, burning love and heartbreak throughout their young lives together. Sadly Thomas died at the age of fifty and this wonderful book was dedicated to him.

So glad things have changed now and we don't need to hide same sex relationships from others.

Thank you to Netgalley and Scribner for the advanced copy provided in exchange for an honest review.

Lie with me is a short book with the main character discussing what happened in his teenage years and later life. A teenage affair with another schoolboy when 17 plays centre stage and gradually we learn what happens to the lives of each of them.
A sad book but for me no intensity and not unforgettable to quote one review, perhaps I was missing something, it certainly seems so from other reviewers comments. I was entertained to a fashion but certainly not moved. Lots of prose but for me not descriptive enough.
My thanks to net galley and publisher for the opportunity to review this book honestly.

“Because you will leave and we will stay.”
A powerful story about first love and its enduring impact on your life.
The novel takes place in rural France in the 1980s where two 17-year-old boys have secret relationship. One, our narrator, is effeminate and faces ridicule from his school peers, but ultimately knows he will be able to leave his small town to somewhere more accepting. The other is Thomas who is able to hide his sexuality but feels trapped by his family circumstance as he is relied on to take over the family farm.
Alongside the gorgeous love story, Besson raises the ideas and themes of life being wasted and whether it is our circumstances that confine us or our own ability to break away from those circumstances.
As we hear the story from the perspective of an older Philippe, we learn about how he has grown as a gay man and how homophobia, AIDs and his relationships have shaped his life. We’re also able to piece together snippets from Thomas’s life whose path has taken a different course.
The book is heart-breaking but it is so worth it. One of the best depictions of gay love I have read. Thank you to Penguin and Netgalley for the advanced copy.

Have you ever read something so moving that you feel the need to distance yourself from it for a while? Philippe Besson’s Lie With Me is that book. I am beyond grateful that it has been translated from French to English so that it can be accessed by a wider reading population, and Molly Ringwald’s translation is stunning. Admittedly, it did take me a moment to get used to the American English, but after that I was consumed by the text.

The novel opens in 2007, but quickly shifts to the winter of 1984, in a childhood without choice, ‘a bygone era, a dying city, a past without glory.’ Our narrator is nameless, and we learn that he has been branded by the homophobic slurs typical of children. He is an outsider, and his inability to refute their claims confirms their suspicions.

At seventeen, the narrator is experiencing what might be his first crush. Thomas brings choice and emotion into his life, but this is not a thrilling tale of romance and first love with all the salacious details. Instead, there is vulnerability, secrecy and heartbreak. It encapsulates the experience I’m sure many of us find familiar and potentially traumatic to remember. Given that society is homophobic, affection feels unfamiliar and undeserved, and learning to be tender is not always an option available.

I found myself in tears when the narrator reflects upon the AIDS crisis. As a teenager he would have been unable to imagine the catastrophic loss ahead. Besson’s reflective style allows for the narrator to impart realities in the midst of teenage naïvety.

‘It’s there but we think we are safe from it. We know nothing of the grand decimation that will follow, depriving us of our best friends and old lovers, that will bring us together in cemeteries and cause us to scratch out names in our address books, enraging us with so many absences, such profound loss.’

The next two sections of the novel are set in 2007 and 2016, and they are equally moving. These chapters further explore the cost of shame and internalised homophobia.

As the narrative is so ambiguous it is almost impossible to determine if this is a work of fiction or if it is rooted in memoir. Regardless, Besson has captured the experience of a life unlived and it is heart wrenching.

I found Lie With Me a more engrossing coming-of-age tale than Call Me By Your Name, perhaps because it focused more strongly on the two men who formed the narrative, Thomas and Philippe.

Two adolescent boys meet and become lovers one short summer in 1984 but as adults they are destined to remain apart. Many years later Philippe meets Thomas's son, by chance and discovers what happened to him.

It surprised me that during the 1980s it was difficult to be openly gay in France. I wondered if the book was based on personal experience. Whether or not, it was a moving and riveting read and illustrates that a good novel doesn't need to be overlong to have great impact.

Many thanks to NetGalley and PenguinBooksUK for the opportunity to read and review Lie With Me.

Is this a memoir or just fiction? Surely it's a memoir and if it is it makes this even more of a compelling read.I was a mess after I finished this.It was always going to be obvious the outcome for Thomas and Philippe wouldn't be the one the reader wanted and that wasn't really the reason I was a mess.It was more about the world we live in where as recently as the 1980's people still have to hide their sexuality and as a result never get to live their lives the way they want to.





Starting in 1984 and finishing in 2017 this one touched me deeply.Two young boys who became lovers for a summer but where never destined to be much more.




I did struggle,initially with the lack of dialogue but the more I read the more I didn't mind although as a result the book had a very melancholy feel to it.The joy and anguish of that first love told in the most beautiful words here.





The majority of the book centres around Thomas and Philippe's youth.How they got together and their subsequent relationship.My heart ached for these boys.Their story was so touching and yet so sad.How many people meet and fall in love and never really stand a chance?





The later part is when Philippe meets Thomas's son by chance one day and finally finds out a little of Thomas's life after the summer of 1984.I say a little of Thomas's life because although his story is told there's so much you don't know in a way.




It's not romance but it definitely was a love story....

This is an excellent memoir about the writer's experience of first love in a 1980s French school. It's a short book but it has stayed with me long after I finished it. Highly recommended.

Absolutely beautiful.
Well deserving of it's inclusion in awards lists, this evocative, concise and exquisitely rendered story of first love, lost youth and expectations/responsibilities vs living your truth.
I read this short book all in one morning, all throughout waiting with bated breath for it to destroy my heart and reduce me to tears......and it did, but kept that tension and expectation right until the very end..
I now want to read more of the authors work and really hope there are other novels translated into English so I don't have to ruin his wonderful story-telling by stumbling through in my frankly poor understanding of French - obviously my own failing, but I'm hopeful as I go off to search never-the-less!

Sometimes your first love makes you. Most times, it will undo you. <i>Lie with me</i> tells the story of both.

I had wanted to read this book for a long time so I opened it with a sense of trepidation, hoping I wouldn't be about to be sorely disappointed. I needn't have worried. <i>Lie with me</I> was fast and moving and beautiful and ultimately heartbreaking. It made me wish I was 17 again. It made me glad I'm not 17 anymore. Just gorgeous.

‘Lie With Me’ is a short but powerful dedication to a rare kind of love, a relationship that a person carries with them for their entire lives.

It shows sweet and pure adolescent love torn apart because it didn’t resemble hegemonic standards. How fear and internalised self hatred can prevent people from expressing their authentic selves and ultimately destroy lives, hence why the last chapter really had me on the verge of tears.

Yes, it has similar tones to Call Me By Your Name but it is ultimately less sheltered in the beauty and warmth of Italy and brings more light to the fear of homophobia faced by most closeted lgbt+ kids in the 80s.

I loved Molly Ringwald’s translation although I found it difficult to connect to the multitudes of French places, books and other specific culture mentioned as a naive English reader.

Overall, a short, sweet and sad tale that I really enjoyed.

Thank you to Net Galley for the ARC in exchange for an honest review.

Lie With Me is a beautifully written lyrical novel by French author Philippe Besson about a love affair between two 17 year old boys in the 80s. They get together in their final year of school, hiding their relationship and meeting secretly, realising that their love has to stay invisible for the rest of the world. The book is full of exquisite passages expressing the boys' longing, burning love and heartbreak. At 160 pages this is a quick read that I savoured in a day.

"This feeling of love, it transports me, it makes me happy. At the same time, it consumes me and makes me miserable the way all impossible loves are miserable."

Many thanks to Penguin Books UK for a review copy in exchange for an honest review.

A very melancholic read I was not prepared for!

I went into this with a fairly low expectation because it kept being hailed as ‘the French Call Me by Your Name’ which I wasn’t a fan off. And I think that’s an unfair comparison.
Lie With Me was so poignant and an emotionally charged read that it completely took me by surprise at how sad and emotional it made me.
It might be a very short and concise read but it packed so much punch.

Very pleasantly surprised.

Beautifully evocative of time, place and being in love for the first time, Lie With Me is one of the best short novels I’ve read in a long while.

The narrator, a fifty-something author, unsettled by an encounter at a hotel, remembers being 17 and falling in love with Thomas, a fellow high school student in a small town in France in 1984. Their relationship is brief and kept secret because of societal norms and expectations. It affects the rest of their lives in different ways, elegiac and tragic. It also affected me as a reader, both immersing me completely in the narrative and the mood and prompting my own recollections. It is a wonderful book to read in one sitting.

What I really loved about Lie With Me is its ambiguity. There are enough hints throughout to make you wonder whether this is a work of fiction or a memoir. The narrator tells you that he is an accomplished liar in one moment and in the next highlights the clarity with which he remembers a look or a feeling nearly forty years later. Looking up Philippe Besson after finishing, I lamented the fact that I can’t read French and came across a recent short interview in The New Yorker where he says “I wanted to write a sadness.” And there is great sadness, judgemental society, homophobia, repression, loss of innocence and love.

Lie With Me will invite comparisons with Call Me By Your Name, which I haven’t read, only seen the film but, together with the fact that Molly Ringwald translated it, I hope this will lead to a wide readership the book deserves. I also hope that it will lead to further translations of Besson’s novels into English.

My thanks to Penguin and Netgalley for the opportunity to read Lie With Me.

This is a beautiful short novel, working through first love / sexual awakening and onto the loss and betrayal of youth. I was previously unaware of Besson, and only after did the meta-textual elements come to my attention; the suggestion that this may (or may not) be based on the author’s experiences unexpectedly hit me like a punch (and i now want to read novels referred to in the later stages of the book).

Told from the perspective of the adult looking back on his experiences, and later questioning his own reliability (memoir? Novel?), the emotional and physical connection to his younger self is palpable. If initially it feels a little “call me by your name”, the diversions Besson takes on the way set it apart - this is a superior novel in my mind.

That Molly Ringwald is now a translator is a surprise too...!

This was so convincingly written that I'm still not entirely sure that it is fiction. Nevertheless Lie With Me is a beautiful novella from beginning to end. Though at times I did feel that the text was oddly old fashioned when it came to depicting sexual encounters I do understand some liberties may have been taken in translation. That said I did think that the translative work was phenomenal, allowing what must be truly poetic prose shine through in any language. Quite frankly I'll be very surprised if it isn't adapted for film in future.