Who You Think I Am

“Told through documents including depositions, transcriptions, and novel fragments, Laurens’s (In His Arms) intricate and cerebral novel explores the construction of identity and the politics of age, gender, and desire… Laurens crafts the novel’s nested secrets meticulously, producing tricky and thought-provoking surprises until the very end.” –PUBLISHERS WEEKLY
 
“Readers might think they know where the plot is going, but Laurens uses several sly shifts in perspective to upend the story as she questions the nature and longevity of female desire and desirability in this timely and astute novel.” –BOOKLIST
 
“Do novelists construct avatars to clarify and shroud the truth simultaneously? Do we all? Prix Femina award winner Laurens (In His Arms) deftly investigates these questions…a well-constructed example of literary/commercial crossover that will prickle readers.”  –LIBRARY JOURNAL
 
“A harrowing and challenging book that questions the nature of control in an age of digital obsession…exploitative and haunting…Laurens, as translated from French into English by Adriana Hunter, excels at creating an at once expansive and hyperfocused narrative. The reader gets the sense they are watching a caged animal, both observing and forcing her to be observed. The line between willingly giving up her story and being forced to is thin, and as Claire vacillates between reveling in the opportunity to explain and feeling cornered, the reader’s role shifts from audience to antagonist. Combined with the plot’s twists and turns, the net effect is a complex interrogation of the place of women in society—and the role of social media in giving us the illusion of control.” –WORLD LITERATURE TODAY

“In this ingenious and intelligent novel, Camille Laurens revisits, like a virtuoso in the virtual world, a romantic encounter.” —ELLE (France)
 
Who You Think I Am—Le Monde des livres
 
“Camille Laurens enjoys exploring love, especially the foreplay and the fallout.” —Le Figaro littéraire