Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley door pickup 10am - 7pm 3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
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  • Open Daily: 10am - 10pm
    Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm

    3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
    612-822-4611

Open Daily: 10am - 10pm | Alley-side Pickup: 10am - 7pm
3038 Hennepin Ave Minneapolis, MN
612-822-4611
Lili Is Crying

Lili Is Crying

Bessette, Hélène
Briggs, Kate
McBride, Eimear

Paperback

General FictionLiterary Fiction

Publisher Price: $16.95

ISBN10: 0811239667
ISBN13: 9780811239660
Publisher: New Directions Publishing Corporation
Published: Jul 22 2025
Pages: 192
Weight: 0.45
Height: 0.60 Width: 5.20 Depth: 8.00
Language: English

A New Yorker Best Book of 2025

Shortlisted for the 2025 French-American Foundation Translation Prize

Lili Is Crying, Hélène Bessette's debut novel, conveys with singular force the fraughtness and depth of the troubling relationship between Lili and her mother, Charlotte. With a near-mythic quality, Bessette's stripped-back prose evokes at once the pain of thwarted love--of desire run cold--and the promise of renewal. Lauded by critics on its initial 1953 publication for its boundary-pushing style, Lili Is Crying catapulted Bessette to cult status in France. The novel is moving and maddening in turns, with its characters trapped in their own cruelties and sorrows, but in its spareness and strength it feels true. Show me a woman who's chosen something. Bessette's books were hailed for their unusual economy of expression, rarity, strange humor, and sheer vivacity. She characterized her new kind of novel as a freshly cut slice of life, whose force comes from its lack of commentary.

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