Autofiction differs from autobiography in that, to use Jean Genet’s formula with which Édouard Louis opens his latest novel, Change: A novel, the self is nothing but a ‘pretext’. In Louis’ case, it is a pretext for exploring the self as a sociological, rather than psychological, phenomenon; the enduring product of the social class in which it was forged. Change (first published in 2021 as Changer: méthode) opens with the narrator, Édouard (né Eddy), sitting at his desk writing what will become the novel we are now reading. His objective: ‘to fix the past in writing and, I suppose, to get rid of it’. This will prove easier said than done. As Édouard later discovers, the past has a way of reinstating itself, like a pendulum which is always restored to equilibrium. It is, however, less this resting place than the oscillations that Louis is interested in recording.

Louis’ childhood is a common theme in his work, in particular the poverty, violence, bullying, and homophobia he was subjected to growing up in the working-class village of Hallencourt in northern France. His novels all deal in one way or another with class, sexuality, transformation, and the intersection of life and fiction. Change, Louis’ fifth novel, tells the story of Édouard’s ‘escape’ from the village to a lycée in Amiens, the closest city, where he quickly sets about transforming himself to blend in with the new class of leftist élites to which he so desperately aspires.