Éric Chacour's 'stunning' debut novel goes to Gallic Books

Gallic Books has landed What I Know About You, debut literary novel from Éric Chacour, translated by Pablo Strauss. 

Editor Polly Mackintosh signed UK and Commonwealth rights, excluding Canada, from Sophie Langlais at the Books and More Agency.

What I Know About You is the "heartbreaking sotry of a family torn apart by an epic love" and has already clinched 12 French prizes, including the Prix Femina des lycéens and the French Booksellers’ Prize. 

The synopsis reads: "In a tight-knit Levantine Christian family in 1960s Cairo, Tarek’s whole life is planned out for him. A doctor like his father, he has taken over the family practice, married his childhood sweetheart, and is well respected in society. Then Ali, the son of one of his patients, enters his life and turns it upside down. The two men’s unsayable relationship sparks a series of events as dramatic as the Six-Day War and assassination of president Anwar Sadat playing out in the background.

"The turn of the millennium finds Tarek living as a doctor in Montreal. Someone is writing about him and to him, piecing together a past he wants only to forget. But who is the writer of this tale?"

Mackintosh said: "What I Know About You is a very special book from an exciting new voice in francophone literature. Chacour is a wonderful storyteller, and this novel blends themes of forbidden love, family secrets and societal change to stunning effect. I adored it, and I can’t wait for more readers to discover it." 

Chacour added: "What a joy to have Gallic offer What I Know About You to English-speaking readers, in this wonderful translation by Pablo Strauss. I greatly admire his work – he is attentive to blending authorial intention and the musicality of the English language in every sentence. I’m now entrusting Tarek, Ali, Fatheya and the other characters to you: I know you’ll look after them."