What You Need from the Night A Novel

A powerful, intimate portrait of grief and radicalization that grapples with the conundrum of having loved ones we no longer recognize.

After the death of his wife, a father raises his two sons alone. His bond with Fus, the elder, and Gillou, the younger, is a close one. But their town is not a place of opportunity, and it soon becomes clear that the boys are heading down different paths. Gillou sets his sights on university in Paris. Fus, despite his socialist upbringing, falls in with the local far-right group. Though he joins mostly for the camaraderie, their activities, which might on the surface appear harmless, lead to a violent confrontation.

How can a father and son find common ground when everything seems set to break them apart? A sudden tragedy will force them to find an answer.

Tense, sharp, and ultimately heartbreaking, What You Need from the Night asks what acts can truly be forgiven, and shines a spotlight on the forgotten corners of a country where white supremacy has taken hold much like in the US.

Laurent Petitmangin was born in 1965 in the east of France into a family of railway workers. He works for Air France KLM. He has received numerous literary prizes in France for his writing, including the Prix Femina des lycéens, the Prix Stanislas, Grand Prix du premier roman, as well as numerous readers’ prizes. What You Need from the Night is his debut novel.

Shaun Whiteside has translated more than fifty books from German, French, Italian, and Dutch, including novels by Amélie Nothomb, Luther Blissett, Wu Ming, and Marcel Möring. His translations of Freud, Musil, Schnitzler, and Nietzsche are published by Penguin Classics. His translation of the novel Magdalena the Sinner by Lilian Faschinger won the 1996 Schlegel-Tieck Prize. His most recent translation from German is Blitzed: Drugs in Nazi Germany by Norman Ohler. He lives in London.