What I Know About You
WINNER OF THE 2023 PRIX PREMIÈRE PLUME
WINNER OF THE 2024 PRIX DES CINQ CONTINENTS
A heartbreaking tale of a family and an impossible love, torn apart by secrets and traditions in late-twentieth-century Cairo.
In a tight-knit Levantine Christian family in 1960s Cairo, Tarek’s entire life is written in advance. He’ll be a doctor like his father, marry, and have children. Under the watchful eye of the family’s strong women, he starts to do just that – until a patient’s son, Ali, enters his life and turns it upside down. The two men’s unsayable relationship sparks a series of events as dramatic as the Six-Day War and assassination of President Anwar Sadat playing out in the background.
The turn of the millennium finds Tarek living as a doctor in Montreal. Someone is writing about him and to him, piecing together a past he wants only to forget. But who is the writer of this tale? And will Tarek figure it out in time?
From Cairo’s grand boulevards and hidden alleys to Montreal’s grim winter, from the reign of Nasser to the early 2000s, What I Know About You tells the heartbreaking story of a family torn apart by an epic love.
A bestseller in its original Quebec edition, and the recipient of several awards, including the Prix Femina, What I Know About You is poised to be an international sensation.
"This novel is a searing love story that moves between Egypt and Montréal, that shifts between hearts, highlighting the sacrifices the characters feel they have to make for the ones they love. Romantic, surprising, mesmerizing, and so devastating, What I Know About You examines the terrible costs of family secrets and toxic shame." – Suzette Mayr, author of The Sleeping Car Porter
Awards
- Winner, Première Plume award 2023
- Winner, Prix des Cinq Continents 2023
Reviews
"A splendid exercise in melancholy and heartbreak with highly empathetic characters, Chacour’s first novel is beautifully written and superbly translated from the French by Pablo Strauss. It is not to be missed." – Michael Cart, Booklist ★ STARRED Review
"Astute prose that reveals as much through words as it does through silences ... What I Know About You is a heartrending novel in which unanswered questions and unvoiced feelings take on a life of their own." – Eileen Gonzalez, Foreword Reviews
“A novel of secrets kept and vows broken among the members of a worldly, Levantine Christian family in Cairo, clinging to tradition amid radical societal change from the 1960s to the 21st century. That larger story is fascinating, but it takes a back seat to the even more intriguing twists and turns within the household. The sense of intimacy Éric Chacour (and his translator, Pablo Strauss) have achieved with What I Know About You is astonishing.” – James Crossley, Leviathan Bookstore
"Astute prose that reveals as much through words as it does through silences...What I Know About You is a heartrending novel in which unanswered questions and unvoiced feelings take on a life of their own." – Eileen Gonzalez, Foreword Reviews
"A magnificent debut novel about family secrets and loves that endure long after their breaking point." – L’Actualité
"A writer who charts his own course, polishing each sentence until it conveys the totality of the observable world, from the smallest gesture and look to the displacements contained in our life choices. A story of love, memory, and devastation." – Jury statement, Prix des cinq continents (winner)
"Éric Chacour’s writing is poetic and precise. A wonderful new voice and one of 2023’s most remarkable books." – Mali Navia, Chatelaine
"An intimate conversation fraught with things left unsaid and secrets revealed, told with a delicate understatement. Masterful." – Shirley Saver, Jury Chair, 2023 Première Plume award
"Certain novels leave an indelible mark – this is one of them." – Dominique Lemieux, Les libraires
"So powerfully resonant and ingeniously constructed, it is hard to believe this is a first novel." – Léa Harvey, Le soleil
"A beautiful debut about family secrets and loves that last far past their breaking point." – Julie Roy, L'Actualité
"A finely honed debut … with an intricate, original architecture." – Philippe Villard, Tribune de Genève
"A story of forbidden love, deep roots and escaping them … leavened with stylistic brio and profundity." – Odile Tremblay, Le Devoir
"A debut that already feels like a classic." – Mohammed Aïssaoui, Le Figaro
"Razor-sharp yet sensual prose … plumbs the depths of a man torn between two worlds and two eras, for a vibrant portrait of a changing society … Dazzling." – Anne-Frédérique Hébert-Dolbec, Le Devoir
"A sensual, intricate, political first novel." – Virginie Bloch-Lainé, Libération
"A sublime story of absence and reconciliation." – Sandrine Bajos, Le Parisien
"The writing is silken, suggestive, skillful and touching." – Sylvain Sarrazin, La Presse