edouard louis, welcome to hardtalk. thank you very much.born and raised in a working class town in the north of france. you escaped as a teenager to make a new life but it seems to me ever since then, you've been, in a sense, faced with an impulse to go back, to make sense of your own past. is that right? yeah, because, you know, i have the feeling that while i was living my childhood, i wasn't understanding it. i was living kind of next to my childhood as a child. and it's only when i took a distance with my past that i was suddenly able to understand it. for example, as a child, as i describe in my last book who killed my father, i hated my father because i thought that he was a bad person because of his homophobia, because of his violent urges, because of his violent behaviours. and it's only when i left the place that i was able to understand that his behaviour, what it was saying to me is, his behaviour towards gay people, toward women and everything was conditioned by something bigger than him — by socialforce, by his place in the wor

now on bbc news, stephen sackur speaks to french writer edouard louis on hardtalk. welcome to hardtalk, every so often a writer emerges with the voice so original, distinct event strong that it is heard far beyond the confines of the book buying public. so it is of the book buying public. so it is of my gas today, edouard louis, produced overall, account of his own up produced overall, account of his own up hanging in a working—class town and the north of france five years ago. since then, he has written two more books, one from his own experience of class discrimination, homophobia and violence and a fractured france. it's tempting to see him as the voice now of the generation. his anger, the fuel that propels him. welcome. you were born and raised in a working—class town on the north of france. you've escaped as a teenager to make a new life but it seems to me ever since then, you've been in a sense, faced with an impulse to go back, to make sense of your own past. because i know, you have the feeling that while i was living my childhood, i wasn't understanding it