Letter to D: A Love Story - Hardcover

Gorz, André

Hardcover

ISBN 10: 0745646778 ISBN 13: 9780745646770

Publisher: Polity, 2009

Synopsis

'You're 82 years old. You've shrunk six centimetres, you only weigh 45 kilos yet you're still beautiful, graceful and desirable' -- so begins Andre Gorz's 'open love letter' to the woman he has lived with for 58 years and who lies dying next to him. As one of France's leading post-war philosophers, Andre Gorz wrote many influential books, but nothing he wrote will be read as widely or remembered as long as this simple, passionate, beautiful letter to his dying wife., In a bittersweet postscript a year after Letter to D was published, a note pinned to the door for the cleaning lady marked the final chapter in an extraordinary love story. Andre Gorz and his terminally ill wife, Dorine, were found lying peacefully side by side, having taken their lives together. They simply could not live without one another., An international bestseller, Letter to D is the ultimate love story -- and all the more poignant because it's true.

About this title

Review:

"Gorz's writing here is painstaking in its honesty, utterly without sentimentality but full of genuine passion. 'Like the very best books, ' writes the translator in her afterword, 'Letter to D will break your heart.'"
London Review of Books

"That one 75-page missive could eclipse the seminal work of an intellectual who impressed even the great Jean-Paul Sartre says something about the power and resonance of this passionate and soul-searching homage to his English wife Dorine."
Wigan Evening Post

"Gorz wants to extract the 'poison' from his previous depiction of Dorine in his first published work. To set the record straight, the fragile, clingy girl of The Traitor is replaced here by an intelligent, vivacious woman on whom he is totally dependent: 'You opened up the richness of life for me and I loved life through you.' The book's conclusion - knowing that a year later Gorz and Dorine committed suicide together - is guaranteed to bring a lump to the throat."
Times Literary Supplement

"A love letter of such exquisite poignancy that it has now come to define the man."
Lancashire Evening Post

"Gorz's admiration for his wife's strength of purpose and character, her resolve throughout her long illness, her style, her beauty and her commitment to him are likely to make even the most stern-hearted of readers lachrymose."
Good Web Guide

"One of the most poignant missives you'll ever read. A meditation on a love supreme."
Sunday Magazine

"This spare, elegant, best-selling memoir by a celebrated French journalist and writer has been impeccably translated into English by Sydney-born Julie Rose."
Sydney Morning Herald

"Neither sentimental nor polemic, this book is a celebration of love that lasts, of passion and commitment and loyalty that overcome illness and disappointment. It is not surprising this intimate love-letter has struck a greater chord in Gorz's adopted country than all of his other fine intellectual works of philosophy."
Courier Mail

"Little gem of a love story."
Sunday Telegraph

"The heartbreaking postscript caps off a captivating snapshot of a grand love."
Sunday Mail

"Andre was one of the 20th century's leading philosophers, but none of his words resonate deeper than this moving read ... In these days of email, letter writing has become a lost art. This book is the ultimate love letter from a man to the woman he loves more than life itself, written after he discovered she was dying."
New Idea

"His love for her is touching and honest, made all the more remarkable by their 58 years of monogamy."
Sun Herald

"Gorz lays bare his heart for his beloved Dorine ... a love at first sight that turned into a lifetime of love and companionship, which Gorz writes about here with great reverence and beauty."
Sunday Mail

"It's not about death, it's about life and love."
Daily News

"The result, freshly translated for an English audience, is an elegiac tribute, which is spared the usual dip into saccharine plaudits by the intellectual rigour of Gorz's impressive mind."
Sun Herald

"The heartbreakingly romantic French bestseller Letter to D: A Love Story is the ultimate love letter."
Everywoman

"In a word: poignant."
Herald Sun

"The true story by Andre Gorz is captivating reading."
Pregnancy & Birth Magazine

About the Author:

Andre Gorz was born in Austria in 1924, and moved to Paris in 1948, going on to become an editor of Les Temps Modernes. He was one of the founders of Le Nouvel Observateur and wrote for it under the pseudonym of Michel Bosquet for some twenty years. His books Critique of Economic Reason and The Traitor are published by Verso.

About this edition

• Publisher: Polity
• Publication date: 2009
• ISBN 10: 0745646778
• ISBN 13: 9780745646770
• Binding: Hardcover
• Edition number: 1
• Number of pages: 144