Offenses

'Debré's voice is Camusian, comic, stark, relentless and totally hypnotic' Rachel Kushner
Is a criminal born or made? What turns them towards violence?
A young man stabs an elderly woman ten times for the sake of a EUR450 debt. But why would he commit such a brutal murder over a petty sum, when he has a girlfriend and a child at home? How much could he lose when there is already so little to start with? Centring on a perpetrator and a victim who remain nameless - who are nobodies but could be anybody - Offenses unfolds as a contemporary parable exploring the biases and barriers built into the legal system.
Blending expertise in criminal law with her signature knife-edge prose, Constance Debré probes the intricacies of crime, punishment and accountability in this propulsive tale.

Constance Debré is the author of Love Me Tender, which won the Prix Littéraire des Inrockuptibles in 2020, Playboy, which won the Prix de la Coupole in 2018, and Name.