On the night of Friday, 13 November 2015, three suicide bombers blew themselves up outside the Stade de France during a football match between France and Germany, attended by President François Hollande. By 1am the next morning, 130 victims were dead, and 416 others were injured, many critically. Seven attackers were killed, and two more died in a shootout with police days later.

In September 2021, nearly six years later, the trial of 20 men accused of involvement in the attacks began in a specially built courtroom near the Palais de Justice. Fourteen were present, six tried in absentia, and only one, Salah Abdeslam, had directly participated in the attacks. The others were involved in planning, logistics, or assisting the terrorists. With many defendants refusing to testify and the trial featuring mostly secondary figures, some doubted whether it would be meaningful. However, in V13, Emmanuel Carrère’s gripping account, it becomes clear that the trial was far from a failure. As he writes, it became "a unique experience of horror, pity, proximity and presence.” The book, based on Carrère's weekly dispatches for L’Obs, immerses readers in the trial, offering a vivid, firsthand perspective of this historic event.

Buy V13: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/v13

*

Emmanuel Carrère, novelist, filmmaker, journalist, and biographer, is the award-winning internationally renowned author of The Adversary (a New York Times Notable Book), Lives Other Than My Own, My Life As A Russian Novel, Class Trip, Limonov and The Mustache.

Adam Biles is Literary Director at Shakespeare and Company. His latest novel, Beasts of England, a to Animal Farm, is available now. Buy a signed copy here: https://www.shakespeareandcompany.com/books/beasts-of-england

Listen to Alex Freiman’s latest EP, In The Beginning: https://open.spotify.com/album/5iZYPMCUnG7xiCtsFCBlVa?si=h5x3FK1URq6SwH9Kb_SO3w

Get bonus content on Patreon

Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.