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Edouard Louis' brother spent much of his life dreaming. He imagined he would become a world-famous craftsman, that he would travel, make his fortune, and that his father - who had disappeared - would return and love him.

But in his poor, working-class world, where social violence limits people's desires, his dreams collapsed. More than anything, he wanted to escape his life, but no one had taught him how to do so. Everything he was — his brutality, his behaviour with women and with others — condemned him; all he had left was gambling and alcohol to forget.

At thirty-eight, after years of failure and depression, he was found dead in his small studio apartment. This book is the story of a breakdown.