Description

“The book of the moment” Sunday Times

“Highly entertaining . . . subtle and complex” Guardian

“Despentes at her very best” New European

“Brilliant – funny, wise and completely addictive” VICTORIA HISLOP

“Full of energy and blistering rationality” LISA McINERNEY

Dear Dickhead,
I read the piece you posted on Insta. You’re like a pigeon shitting on my shoulder as you flap past. It’s shitty and unpleasant. Congratulations: you’ve had your fifteen minutes of fame! You want proof? Here I am writing to you.

Rebecca Latte is a famous actress in her fifties, perhaps past the peak of her career.

Oscar Jayack is a middle-aged, moderately successful author who, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, has been accused of sexual harassment by his former publicist-turned-feminist blogger Zoe Katana.

When Oscar insults Rebecca’s appearance on Instagram, she sends a scorching reply and the pair fall into a spiral of mutual antipathy. In back-and-forth emails, they vie for the last word, finding common ground in their experiences of addiction, assessing the changing world around them as Covid locks down Paris, and reluctantly beginning to lean on one another.

A novel of rage, irreverence and vulnerability, exploring ageing, gender, privilege, addiction and consent, Dear Dickhead is an excoriating encapsulation of our times and of the broken human beings trying to make sense of it.

Translated from the French by Frank Wynne

Publisher Review

Full of energy and blistering rationality, but generosity, too. This might be Despentes’ wittiest and wisest novel yet. — Lisa McInerney Brilliant – funny, wise and completely addictive – a work of angry, outrageous and hilarious genius. — Victoria Hislop Highly entertaining . . . subtle and complex * Guardian * A book that shows Despentes at her very best: incisive, intelligent and fearless. There is justifiable anger at the heart of Dear Dickhead, but it’s a clear-eyed and channelled anger * New European * This is what makes Despentes and her characters so appealing: they act as if they have nothing to lose yet it’s clear they do . . . At 55, she is still lancing the patriarchy, and her writing remains highly acute. But it has become more sober, patient and full of emotional suspense * Financial Times * Despentes pulls it off with a brio that’s wholly characteristic . . . the energy of [her] voice kept me on her side, and rooting for Oscar, Rebecca and Zoe as they navigated their lives with varying degrees of failure, distress and, occasionally, hope * Telegraph * A must-read…While waiting for society to evolve, Virginie Despentes stays the same * Vogue * Virginie Despentes writes with a harpoon…A queer Castor. A grunge Jane Austen. A punk Pythia. A bacchante rebelling against the patriarchal order * Causeur * This is the paradox and, perhaps, the power of Virginie Despentes: to be seen as both a radical and mainstream, divisive and agreeable, raging and benevolent * L’Obs * She can capture all that makes up an era in a way nobody else can * Les Inrockuptibles * She is a flower in the asphalt and the queen of her time * En attendant Nadeau * Wry, intelligent, often laugh-out-loud funny – definitely not one to miss. * Marie Claire * An excellent read. The writing in Dear Dickhead is electric, explosive, mad, beautiful, and exhilarating. Nothing is sacred, life is rude and ugly and all is potentially beautiful. * Morning Star *