You Will Not Have My Hate by Antoine Leiris will feature on the Radio 2 Fact not Fiction Book Club on Thursday 27 October.
The book was selected with the help of a panel made up of Reading Agency and library staff from across the UK. Find out more about the non-fiction strand of the Radio 2 Book Club.
We have an exclusive extract available for you to read.
WIN 10 copies for your reading group – just visit our Noticeboard.
You Will Not Have My Hate
On 13th November 2015, Antoine Leiris’s wife, Hélène, was killed, along with 88 other people at the Bataclan Theatre in Paris, when three men armed with guns and suicide bombs opened fire on the unsuspecting crowd at a rock concert.
Three days later, Antoine wrote an open letter addressed to his wife’s killers, which he published on Facebook. The whole world was in mourning for the victims, but Leiris refused to be cowed or to let his baby son’s life be defined by Hélène’s murder. He refused to let the killers have their way. ‘For as long as he lives, this little boy will insult you with his happiness and freedom,’ he wrote. His post was shared over two hundred thousand times and was reported on all over the world. In his beautiful and moving defiance of the terrorists who had killed his wife, Leiris became an international hero to everyone searching desperately for a way to deal with the horror of the attacks.
Selection panel review
Our library reading panel were deeply moved by You Will Not Have My Hate – here are some of their comments:
“The book details the first few hours and days with Anton after he finds his wife has been murdered at the Bataclan. His prose is so moving. It is translated from French but this hasn’t changed the beautiful way he writes or the meaning. He is grief stricken but has to look after his baby son so has no time to dwell; it is not mawkish or bitter. He is a journalist and this enables him maybe to be objective and subjective at the same time. He is interested in how others deal with him and his son and tries to rationalise and analyse events that are happening. It is a moving elegy to his wife and ends on a positive note, which will gratify the reader. The writing flows and is a page turner in that you want to know the author is ok.”
“Often in the immediate aftermath of a horrific event it is seen only through the medium of newspapers. This book brings the horror into a personal focus. The book adds a poignant and very human element to events.”
“A real, honest account of death and grief. The moments in the morgue, and the barrage of homemade meals, are all familiar traits to anyone who has lost a loved one.”
About the author
Antoine Leiris is a journalist based in Paris. His letter to the Bataclan attackers was shared over two hundred thousand times and was reported on by newspapers and television stations across the globe. He was interviewed by BBC News, ITV News, CNN, NBC News, Le Monde and Elle in France, Vanity Fair, Elle and El Corriere della Sera in Italy amongst many others. You Will Not Have My Hate is his first book.
Get involved
Tune in to the Radio 2 Arts Show on Thursday 27 October to hear an interview with Antoine Leiris talking about his book.
Do you want to read You Will Not Have My Hate? You can share your thoughts with us on Twitter using #FactNotFiction. You can also see what other readers thought, or add the book to your group’s reading list.
Want to find out more? Take a look at the Radio 2 Book Club Twitter feed or find out more on the Radio 2 Book Club website.
