You Will Not Have My Hate

by Antoine Leiris Narrated by Gildart Jackson

Overview

"On Friday night you stole the life of an exceptional person, the love of my life, the mother of my son, but you will not have my hate."

On November 13, 2015, Antoine Leiris's wife, Hélène Muyal-Leiris, was killed by terrorists while attending a rock concert at the Bataclan Theater in Paris, in the deadliest attack on France since World War II. Three days later, Leiris wrote an open letter addressed directly to his wife's killers, which he posted on Facebook. He refused to be cowed or to let his seventeen-month-old 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." Instantly, that short Facebook post caught fire, and was reported on by newspapers and television stations all over the world. In his determination to honor the memory of his wife, he became an international hero to everyone searching desperately for a way to deal with the horror of the Paris attacks and the grim shadow cast today by the threat of terrorism.

Now Leiris tells the full story of his grief and struggle. You Will Not Have My Hate is a remarkable, heartbreaking, and, indeed, beautiful memoir of how he and his baby son, Melvil, endured in the days and weeks after Hélène's murder. With absolute emotional courage and openness, he somehow finds a way to answer that impossible question: how can I go on? He visits Hélène's body at the morgue, has to tell Melvil that Mommy will not be coming home, and buries the woman he had planned to spend the rest of his life with.

Leiris's grief is terrible, but his love for his family is indomitable. This is the rare and unforgettable testimony of a survivor, and a universal message of hope and resilience. Leiris confronts an incomprehensible pain with a humbling generosity and grandeur of spirit. He is a guiding star for us all in these perilous times. His message-hate will be vanquished by love--is eternal.

Editorial Reviews

DECEMBER 2016 - AudioFile

Gildart Jackson provides a heartbreakingly nuanced performance of this short but significant audiobook. The Bataclan Theatre in Paris was the site of a horrifying terrorist act that took 88 lives in 2015. Leiris describes the first moments of his discovery of the attack, and his wife’s death, while he is taking care of his son at home. News trickles in, friends send messages, until eventually the full picture of the carnage becomes known. Jackson’s voice communicates both the pain and resilience of Leiris’s experience as the author pushes back against the expectation that he express hate. Jackson’s performance is reserved, a bit measured but gripping, as he voices Leiris’s account of helping his young son through his grief while facing his own. S.P.C. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

From the Publisher

"An extraordinary read, honest, intimate and lightly poetic. It is a testament of love, loss and grief and also the often untold story of those who are left behind and must find a way to go on"—Irish Independent

"A book of exceptional grace... the most extraordinary account of an emotional journey" – Observer

“All about love and loss…. An astonishing feat… I defy anyone not to shed tears at least once when reading this book.” – Sunday Times

“You Will Not Have My Hate is a courageous and profoundly life affirming manifesto that will live beyond any momentary victory of terrorism. How indestructible these beautiful words are… A heartbreaking eulogy.” –New York Journal of Books

“In a world of anodyne literature, Antoine Leiris's You Will Not Have My Hate stands out like a flare in the night… A work of pure grace… Ultimately a book about language and its necessity as a means not just of making sense of unspeakable tragedy, but of surviving it.” — Interview Magazine

“Courageous and inspirational, without a wasted word.” – Kirkus, starred review

“One of the most enduring and memorable messages after the deadly attack on Paris's Bataclan theater was written by journalist Antoine Leiris… This bracing, courageous, and utterly beautiful book shows us that he had much more to say.” – 21 Must-Read Books for Fall, Elle.com

“This powerful one-sitting read speaks of a very specific grief to which many in the world feel connected.”—Booklist 

Library Journal

02/15/2017
Here is a short and brilliant treatise on grief and loss as experienced in the immediate aftermath of tragedy. On November 13, 2015, Leiris lost his wife, Hélè ne Muyal-Leir, in a terrorist attack at the Bataclan Theater in Paris. Hélène was also survived by their 17-month-old son, Melvil. It was the need to take care of Melvil, and to not allow the terrorists to "have his hate," that made it necessary for Leiris to continue. As expected, this is a very raw book—Leiris says he began composing it just days after the attack—and as such provides tremendous insight into the early grieving process. VERDICT Leiris is to be commended for not providing easy answers nor engaging in the platitudinous language that too often infects memoirs of this sort. This is necessary reading for us all. [See Prepub Alert, 4/3/16; Memoir, 11/14/16; ow.ly/pVqe308ccNV.]—DS

DECEMBER 2016 - AudioFile

Gildart Jackson provides a heartbreakingly nuanced performance of this short but significant audiobook. The Bataclan Theatre in Paris was the site of a horrifying terrorist act that took 88 lives in 2015. Leiris describes the first moments of his discovery of the attack, and his wife’s death, while he is taking care of his son at home. News trickles in, friends send messages, until eventually the full picture of the carnage becomes known. Jackson’s voice communicates both the pain and resilience of Leiris’s experience as the author pushes back against the expectation that he express hate. Jackson’s performance is reserved, a bit measured but gripping, as he voices Leiris’s account of helping his young son through his grief while facing his own. S.P.C. © AudioFile 2016, Portland, Maine

Kirkus Review

★ 2016-07-26
A book that no one would ever want to write proves powerfully, painfully difficult to read.One of the many casualties of the November 2015 terrorist attack on concertgoers at the Bataclan Theater in Paris was Leiris’ young wife, the mother of their 17-month-old son. His grief transcends any attempt at literary criticism, but his craft as a journalist allows him to focus on detail and avoid the bathos of sentimentality, thus allowing his shellshocked horror to stand on its own. The narrative is written like diary entries, fresh with emotional immediacy, beginning with reports of the attack while he was at home, waiting for his wife’s return. Then come his responses, and his responses to other responses, as he comes to terms with his belief that dwelling on hating the perpetrators is not the way to keep his wife alive for him and his son. “People ask me if I’ve forgotten or forgiven,” he writes. “I forgive nothing, I forget nothing. I am not getting over anything, and certainly not so quickly. When everyone else has gone back to his or her life, we will still be living with this. This is our story. To refuse it would be to betray it.” The fulcrum of the narrative (which spans just under two weeks) is an open letter to the terrorists, posted on Facebook, where he writes, “I will not give you the satisfaction of hating you….You have failed. I will not change.” It’s a complex response to a tragic loss, and while it would be minimizing his loss and grief to call the book cathartic, it is certainly part of a response that allows him to conclude, “today, the funeral procession is over. It is toward our new life that we walk.” Courageous and inspirational, without a wasted word.

Product Details

BN ID:	2940169352306
Publisher:	Penguin Random House
Publication date:	10/25/2016
Edition description:	Unabridged

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