With his works selling hundreds of thousands of copies in thirty languages, you might think Édouard Louis risks losing touch with reality. But upon meeting the twenty-nine-year-old writer, I find his humility and frankness are disarming. The radicalism of his words when he defends his class — the working class — contrasts starkly with the softness of his voice. Yes, Édouard Louis is angry. But even anger can be beautiful when it appears in fine prose.

For Édouard Louis, a politically committed writer has to buckle down, “on the ground.” Involved in the national council for high schoolers from age sixteen, in 2018, he joined the railroad workers’ fight against the privatization of France’s national rail network, and then the protests against Emmanuel Macron’s pension reforms. And if this young writer is continually invited to mingle in bourgeois circles, he’s not afraid of being “recuperated.”

“I wrote my book in my own little neck of the woods. And then one day I sent in my first book by mail. I didn’t know anyone. I’d gone to print out my book in a copy center. I borrowed €30 from friends to print my manuscript four times. I sent it to publishers and I was published. I owe nothing to the bourgeoisie.”