In the Absence of Men: A Novel

by Philippe Besson Narrated by Ali Andre Ali

Overview

From the author of the international bestseller Lie with Me comes the tale of an affair between an aristocratic teenager and a soldier, as they discover the possibilities and perils of first love.

Summer, 1916. With German Zeppelins on the skyline, the men of Paris are off at war. For Vincent, sixteen and still too young to fight, this moment of dread is also a moment of possibility. An electrifying encounter with Marcel, an enigmatic middle-aged writer, draws Vincent's desires out into the light. As he's taken under Marcel's wing, Vincent begins a dangerous affair with Arthur, the son of his governess and a young soldier on leave. Together, they share a secret that everyone seems to know and yet everyone remains silent about.

In this stunning portrait of young love, Philippe Besson depicts a young man who plays by his own rules and is not afraid of who he is. In the afternoons, Vincent is mentored by Marcel, the great novelist, in the city's opulent cafés as they draw the judgment of society. And at night, he hides Arthur in his bedroom as the two risk everything to be together. Their affair initiates them into a world of pleasure and shields them from the encroaching war. During this magical week away from the trenches, Vincent shelters Arthur with happiness, reassuring him, “Nothing will happen to you.”

Tender and harrowing, In the Absence of Men captures how exhilarating and heart-crushing it is to fall in love for the first time. Besson's award-winning novel “beautifully captures the romance and amorality of gilded youth” (The Independent).

Editorial Reviews

From the Publisher

"Philippe Besson’s dreamy wartime love story was first published in 2002, and the reissued version is just as perfect for summer reading...lyrical." —People Magazine

"In the Absence of Men is a short, bold and original novel which beautifully captures the romance and amorality of gilded youth. It is particularly notable for a totally convincing portrait of Proust." —Independent

"Besson is brave to include Proust but his courage pays off: this is a beautiful, dreamily experimental novel unafraid of describing either joy or pain." —Metro

Product Details

BN ID:	2940193340218
Publisher:	Simon & Schuster
Publication date:	06/03/2025
Edition description:	Unabridged

Read an Excerpt

Chapter 1 I AM SIXTEEN. I AM as old as the century.

I know there is a war, that soldiers are dying on the front lines of this war, that civilians are dying in the towns and the countryside of France and elsewhere, that the war—more than the destruction, more than the mud, more than the whistle of bullets as they tear through a man’s chest, more than the shattered faces of the women who wait, hoping sometimes against hope, for a letter which never arrives, for a leave of absence perpetually postponed, more than the game of politics that is played by nations—is the sum of the simple, cruel, sad, and anonymous deaths of soldiers, of civilians whose names we will one day read on the pediments of monuments, to the sound of a funeral march.

And yet, I know nothing of war. I live in Paris. I am a pupil at the lycée Louis-le-Grand. I am sixteen.

People say: What a beautiful child! Look at him, he really is magnificent. Black hair. Green, almond-shaped eyes. A girl’s complexion. I say: They are mistaken, I am no longer a child.

I am sixteen and I know perfectly well that to be sixteen is a triumph. More so, perhaps, in time of war. Because I have escaped the war, while those just a little older, those who mocked me, have not escaped, and so are absent. And so I am almost alone, wreathed in the palpable triumph of my sixteen years, surrounded by women who take care of me, with their excessive, frightened care.

I love this new century, which carries with it my hopes, this century which will be mine.

Mother said time and again, before the summer of 1914, that to be born with the century was a sign from God, a benediction, a promise of happiness. She was proud of this miraculous coincidence: my birth, and that of the twentieth century.

For his part, Father spoke of renewal. I think he used the adjective: modern. I was unaware that he knew the meaning of the word. He is a man of the old century, of the past. He is old. My parents are old. My conception was not planned. My coming was an accident. They transformed this curse—for curse it must have seemed at first glance—into an important, long-awaited event.

I am thankful for that accident, that curse.

Videos