Dear Dickhead

A Telegraph Best Novel of the Year

By: Virginie Despentes

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Paperback | 6 January 2026 | Edition Number 1

At a Glance

Paperback
304 Pages

Dimensions(cm)
19.7 x 13.0 x 2.1

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"The book of the moment" Sunday Times

"Highly entertaining . . . subtle and complex" Guardian

"Despentes at her very best" New European
"Brilliant - funny, wise and completely addictive" VICTORIA HISLOP

"Full of energy and blistering rationality" LISA McINERNEY

Dear Dickhead,

I read the piece you posted on Insta. You're like a pigeon shitting on my shoulder as you flap past. It's shitty and unpleasant. Congratulations: you've had your fifteen minutes of fame! You want proof? Here I am writing to you.

Rebecca Latte is a famous actress in her fifties, perhaps past the peak of her career.

Oscar Jayack is a middle-aged, moderately successful author who, in the wake of the #MeToo movement, has been accused of sexual harassment by his former publicist-turned-feminist blogger Zoe Katana.

When Oscar insults Rebecca's appearance on Instagram, she sends a scorching reply and the pair fall into a spiral of mutual antipathy. In back-and-forth emails, they vie for the last word, finding common ground in their experiences of addiction, assessing the changing world around them as Covid locks down Paris, and reluctantly beginning to lean on one another.

A novel of rage, irreverence and vulnerability, exploring ageing, gender, privilege, addiction and consent, Dear Dickhead is an excoriating encapsulation of our times and of the broken human beings trying to make sense of it.

Translated from the French by Frank Wynne

Industry Reviews

This is what makes Despentes and her characters so appealing: they act as if they have nothing to lose yet it's clear they do . . . At 55, she is still lancing the patriarchy, and her writing remains highly acute. But it has become more sober, patient and full of emotional suspense - Financial Times

Highly entertaining . . . subtle and complex - Guardian

Despentes pulls it off with a brio that's wholly characteristic . . . the energy of [her] voice kept me on her side, and rooting for Oscar, Rebecca and Zoe as they navigated their lives with varying degrees of failure, distress and, occasionally, hope - Telegraph

A book that shows Despentes at her very best: incisive, intelligent and fearless. There is justifiable anger at the heart of Dear Dickhead, but it's a clear-eyed and channelled anger - New European

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