You will not have my hate

Shortly after Leiris' wife, Hélène, was killed in the November 2015 terrorist attacks in Paris, he wrote an open letter on Facebook declaring that he and the couple's 17-month-old son, Melvil, would not give those responsible for her death, and that of so many others, the satisfaction of our hate. The moving letter went viral, was picked up by news outlets, and inspired strangers far and wide to send their support to Leiris' sadly shrunken family. In a different life, journalist Leiris would have chosen fiction for his first book, he says, but instead he writes this in the raw days that follow: the date- and time-stamped goings-on of his and Melvil's new life, which feels like another family's story. Though fresh realizations of despair await their every step, Leiris chooses to focus on his wife's absence, and how they'll deal with it: What would I be telling Melvil if I placed the responsibility for the circumstances of our life at someone else's feet? This powerful one-sitting read speaks of a very specific grief to which many in the world feel connected.--Bostrom, Annie Copyright 2016 Booklist

With elegant control, narrator Gildart Jackson embodies the words of French journalist Leiris, who bears witness to the murder of his wife, Hélène Muyal-Leiris, one of the victims of the November 13, 2015, terrorist attack at Paris's Bataclan Theatre. Three days later, Leiris wrote directly to her killers via Facebook: "On Friday evening you stole the life of an exceptional person, the love of my life, the mother of my son, but you will not have my hatred." His post went viral, prompting the publication of this memoir less than a year later. Even as he learns to be both mother and father to his 17-month-old child, Leiris faces the everyday reminders of the loss of Hélène's presence. His journalist's training keeps his writing spare but exact, never allowing for a moment of over-indulgence. His is a tribute to his beloved's life, a promise to their precious son, and an indelible declaration against her killers: "For as long as he lives, this little boy will insult you with his happiness and freedom." -VERDICT With hate too easy an option in this current climate of finger-pointing, -Leiris's honorable response to this horrific tragedy becomes a gift of inspiring humanity. ["Leiris is to be commended for not providing easy answers nor engaging in the platitudinous language that too often infects memoirs of this sort.... Necessary reading for all of us": LJ 11/15/16 starred review of the Penguin Press hc.]-Terry Hong, Smithsonian BookDragon, Washington, DC © Copyright 2017. Library Journals LLC, a wholly owned subsidiary of Media Source, Inc. No redistribution permitted.

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 wifes 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 Ive 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. Its 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. Copyright Kirkus Reviews, used with permission.