Introduction

INTERNATIONAL BESTSELLER - "On Friday night you stole the life of an exceptional person, the love of my life, the mother of my son, but you will not have my hate."

On November 13, 2015, Antoine Leiris’s wife, Hélène Muyal-Leiris, was killed by terrorists while attending a rock concert at the Bataclan Theater in Paris, in the deadliest attack on France since World War II. Three days later, Leiris wrote an open letter addressed directly to his wife’s killers, which he posted on Facebook. He refused to be cowed or to let his seventeen-month-old son’s life be defined by Hélène’s murder. He refused to let the killers have their way: “For as long as he lives, this little boy will insult you with his happiness and freedom.” Instantly, that short Facebook post caught fire, and was reported on by newspapers and television stations all over the world. In his determination to honor the memory of his wife, he became an international hero to everyone searching desperately for a way to deal with the horror of the Paris attacks and the grim shadow cast today by the threat of terrorism.
 
Now Leiris tells the full story of his grief and struggle. You Will Not Have My Hate is a remarkable, heartbreaking, and, indeed, beautiful memoir of how he and his baby son, Melvil, endured in the days and weeks after Hélène’s murder. With absolute emotional courage and openness, he somehow finds a way to answer that impossible question: how can I go on? He visits Hélène’s body at the morgue, has to tell Melvil that Mommy will not be coming home, and buries the woman he had planned to spend the rest of his life with.

Leiris’s grief is terrible, but his love for his family is indomitable. This is the rare and unforgettable testimony of a survivor, and a universal message of hope and resilience. Leiris confronts an incomprehensible pain with a humbling generosity and grandeur of spirit. He is a guiding star for us all in these perilous times. His message—hate will be vanquished by love—is eternal.

Editorial Review

An Amazon Best Book of November 2016: You Will Not Have My Hate is luminescent and devastating. It made my skin grow tingly and pricked my eyes with tears. But it also filled me with hope. A slim book, even with extra space on the page, Antoine Leiris has written an achingly beautiful memoir about the death of his wife, Hélène, in the 2015 Paris terror attacks. Told during the immediate days after his wife’s murder—“with a burst of machine gun fire, they shattered our puzzle”—Leiris, together with his seventeen month old son, grapples with how they must “go on living alone, without the aid of the star whom they swore allegiance.” Leiris writes with intimacy and galvanizing affection. But what makes this memoir soar is Leiris’s refusal to surrender to hatred and anger towards those that murdered his wife: “So, no, I will not give you the satisfaction of hating you,” he writes “…all his life this little boy will defy you by being happy and free.” Humming with humanity, grace and intelligence, You Will Not Have My Hate will alter the ground below you and the sky above. Buy this book and then buy it for the ones you love—for in it Leiris has reminded us of what it is to live. --Al Woodworth, The Amazon Book Review

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