Fleur Pierets: Julian

In the years since, the number of countries to recognise same sex marriage has risen to 34 and similarly, Fleur Pierets’ love for her late wife has only increased. Amidst such loss, Fleur finds solace through her writing, art practice and LGBTQ+ activism, resulting in this stunning debut memoir which simply but poetically traces the limits of what grief can do to a person.

Julian is also an uplifting recounting of two women in love – from the exciting, early days of their relationship to its untimely ending. Fleur’s late wife Julian can be felt on every page, reminding us that no one ever really dies; it is memory which keeps us all alive.

At once devastating and uplifting, Fleur turns grief into art, in a LGBTQ+ reimagining of Joan Didion’s ‘The Year of Magical Thinking’. The book is currently being adapted into a film by Oscar-nominated filmmaker, Lukas Dhont. Translated from Flemish into English for the first time by Elisabeth Kahn, Julian also marks the debut nonfiction title from fairtrade indie publisher 3TimesRebel Press, whose ethos can be explained as three-fold rebel: only translations from minority languages; only works by women; and only books which deal with challenging themes.

This event is supported by Flanders Literature as part of their Flip Through Flanders programme