This is a very heartfelt short novella. The characters are well developed and believable. A well written book

What you need from the night by Laurent Petitimangin

I flew through this short book which I thought was a heartbreaking page turner. The book follows a father who faces challenges while raising his boys, Fus and Gillou alone after the death of his wife. They live in a small town in the Lorraine area of France. Gillou aims for further education in Paris whereas Fus gets involved with a far right group despite his socialist upbringing. This was a thought provoking and powerful read.

Thank you to the author, publisher and netgalleyUK for the advance copy in exchange for an honest review.

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A small book that packs a huge punch - every line is important. A strongly political piece but is the love story of a father and his sons at its heart. Devastatingly realistic - radicalisation can have such subtle beginnings and this situation is not unique to France.

I read this short book in one sitting this week, it will stay with me for a long time.

Set in an economically depressed town in the French Lorraine, the unnamed narrator , a manual worker is raising his two sons after his wife has died from cancer. Their bond is apparent and its clear the father loves his sons deeply. He is active in socialist circles and but their numbers and activities are not what they once were. The town is falling into decay and many are struggling and migrants arrive in the town The narrator worries about the growth of the far right under the political leadership of Marine Le Pen and how much support they are garnering from young people in the town. In time, the eldest son of the family falls in with this crowd. Initially he seems drawn to the extremists for their friendship as opposed to from political will but radicalisation often has such gentle beginnings. Tragedy once again befalls this small family of men and their lives are irrevocably altered.

This is an incredibly powerful, tender and important read and it takes great skill to tell such a story in such a short number of words. It offers an explanation at how easy it can be for extremists to lure people to their cause and for their numbers to grow and grow and it was quite chilling reading having seen the loud and terrifying emergence of such voices where I live. It is also a portrait of a father son relationship asking what do you do when you cannot support your child's actions or choices while still loving your child. Elements of it reminded me of We Need To Talk About Kevin in this regard. The unnamed narrator was captured perfectly.

This is one I will be thinking about for a long time and recommending widely.

4.5 stars..

This debut novel (or rather, novella) set in a left-leaning community in the Lorraine in eastern France, close to the border with Luxembourg, is a powerful and tragic tale that will stay with me.

Our unnamed narrator is a widow and father of two boys. A railway engineer and a committed socialist, he is doing his best to raise his sons in the aftermath of their mother’s untimely death.

One of the boys is destined for university in Paris, while the other (Fus) gets mixed up with a far-right group affiliated with Le Front National (Marine Le Pen’s political party) leading to their small family being tragically torn apart.

The novella raises important questions around filial, unconditional love. How far will a parent will go to support their child before that bond breaks?

Apparently Petitmangin wrote a number of manuscripts over the years which he filed away in a drawer. This is his first novel and it won critical acclaim in France, winning him multiple prizes including the Prix Femina des lycéens. Inspiring stuff.

Originally titled “Ce qu’il faut de nuit” in French and translated into English by Shaun Whiteside, this remarkable book could be set in any marginalised, deindustrialised town in Europe or the US, and shines a light on the lure of the far right in these communities. Recommended. 4-4.5/5 stars

What You Need From The Night is a concise, direct look at the growing divide between a father and the eldest of his two sons after the death of 'la moman'. Told with the gravity of confusion and helplessness that a father experiences when his child falls into the the arms of the far right, this short fiction paints a picture of a father who abhors his son's politics, but cannot abhor his son, and must struggle to reconcile that truth with his socialist convictions when a terrible tragedy rocks their foundations. What You Need From The Night is a portrait of a modern life written with clarity, and such relatability for parents, or children, whose loved ones have gone down those same dark paths without being overly nihilistic.

I was able to read an advanced copy of this book thanks to NetGalley and the publishers but all opinions expressed are my own.

A short novella looking at the impact of Le Pen and the far right movement on a family scale, where an older brother falls in with a group of fascists. The recently widowed father disengages with his son and so the influence of the group becomes more entrenched until a tit for tat attack results in murder.
The emotion and rhetoric is dialled down and what comes across is the bewilderment of the father on how his son has changed.
Dialogue and seeing people as individuals helps bridge the divide.

A small package with a poignant message.

Thank you for the advanced copy in exchange for a review.

I was left speechless by this (it does not happen very often) as the relationship between the father and the son is emotional, touching and so well written (translated).
Set in a beautiful setting and written so beautifully, I was so drawn into this book, lots of factors are at play here.

Highly recommended

https://www.goodreads.com/In a depressed town in the French Lorraine, the unnamed male narrator, a manual worker active in local socialist party circles, raises his two sons Frédéric or “Fus” and Gillou on his own, after the premature death of his wife, affectionately remembered as “la moman”. The family is closely-knit, but the narrator and Fus start drifting apart after Fus joins an extreme right group aligned to the Front National.

Ce qu’il faut de nuit, now available in an English translation by Shaun Whiteside as What You Need from the Night, is Laurent Petitmangin’s debut novel. And what a powerful work it is. It explores – without any judgmental attitude – what might draw a young man (and, perhaps, even older generations) to extremist ideologies. Despite the strong political theme, however, this is primarily – as the author himself admitted – a “love story between a father and his two sons”. In this respect, it is a brilliant psychological study of a man who is torn between the potent bond he has with his elder son and the equally strong abhorrence for that same son’s dubious life decisions. The result is often moving and poignant, with the final chapters being particularly hard-hitting.

Reviews of the French original refer to the novella’s use of local dialect. Although Whiteside’s translation seems to miss this element, it certainly does not disappoint as it is beautifully and poetically rendered.

What You Need From The Night is a novella by Laurent Petitmangin set in a decaying industrial town in Northern France, where many locals are struggling and feeling marginalised as jobs disappear and migrant s arrive. A recently widowed railway worker does his best to bring up his 2 sons in a town where,as a socialist and political activist he's concerned at the number of young people being attracted to the Far Right.
He's even more concerned when it appears that his eldest son, Fus, is one of them. As relations between father and son deteriorate to the point of barely speaking an act of violence occurs that begins a chain reaction of violence and devastated families.

I really enjoyed the book,which could just as easily have been set in any European town beset by deindustrialisation and urban decay with disillusioned people being drawn towards rhetoric and "their own kind". It did seem a bit short with leaps between major events that could have done with an extra chapter in between. It doesn't demonise or judge and there's some excellent insight into how people's political leanings are influenced with even some of the father's socialist friends beginning to blame "them" ,migrants,almost unconsciously for their town's woes.

A bit on the brief side but a good read that is thought-provoking and involving.

Laurent Petitmangin’s What You Need from the Night is a brief novella in which an unnamed father, left to bring up his two sons alone after their mother’s death, finds a chasm opening between him and his eldest boy.

The family lives in a run-down industrial town in northern France where the father belongs to the Socialist party whose numbers are dwindling. No one votes for Macron in Lorraine but there’s an unvoiced feeling that maybe Le Pen’s ideas aren’t entirely wide of the mark which infuriates the boys’ father. The town is fertile ground for the extreme right, short on opportunities for young people who must move away to achieve their ambitions. The small domestic tragedy that overtakes the family lays the ground for Fus to become radicalised, growing up too soon, trying to protect his younger brother while watching his father go to pieces. He’s a decent young man, generous and kind but naïve and lonely, easily corrupted by smooth-talking extremists who appear to have people’s best interests at heart while his father is distracted. Father and son withdraw into their corners, Fus still looking out for his younger brother encouraging him in the ambitions their mother had for them both then things take a very dark turn. Narrated in plain, direct language by the father, this is a powerful piece of fiction which sheds a bright light on political extremism and its dreadful consequences.

What if your son chooses the wrong side? This is a touching novella set in the French Lorraine region in which a father, who is active in the socialist party and has recently lost his wife, recounts in simple, clear language how his son joins the extreme right Front National and how things go from bad to worse from there on.

I was quite touched by it, mostly because I found the father a very believable character and it felt realistic how he described the changing relationship with his son but also with his socialist party friends who seem to be reconsidering their beliefs against a background of closing factories and increasing immigration.

The premise of this book really spoke to me and I was looking forward to reading. I was initially worried when I realised the book is only about 160 pages long and I wasn't sure how the writer would fit so much into such a short book however he tackled the issue well with the time he had.

I think it would have benefitted from being a longer novel where issues and themes could have been explored in more detail however it was a really good novel.

Thanks to Netgalley and Picador for an ARC in exchange for an honest review.