Overview

In the twin worlds of the French bourgeoisie and aristocracy, names are everything.

By contrast, our narrator insists on shedding her surname, indelibly associated with France's political and colonial past.

In Name, she explores how this name is bound to the complex grief she feels for her father's recent passing and her mother's overdose many years earlier, as well as the murky practices of a political dynasty - a family life built around substance abuse, buried trauma and elitist pride.

Written in sharp prose that has been lauded by Rachel Kushner, Maggie Nelson, Olivia Laing and others, Debré's third novel is a fresh feat of restrained yet explosive writing.