Éric Chacour's debut novel is an ode to the power of queer love — even when it's forbidden
What I Know About You is shortlisted for the 2024 Giller Prize and the 2024 Atwood Gibson Fiction Prize
Éric Chacour's debut novel is his own take on Romeo and Juliet — ditching Verona's cobblestone streets for the sounds and smells of Cairo in the second half of the 20th century.
What I Know About You, translated from French by Pablo Strauss, is a powerful queer love story that examines the consequences of breaking free from a life path that's been prescribed by family, religion, politics and society.
When readers are introduced to Tarek, the book's protagonist, he's almost comfortable in what's expected of him: he'll be a doctor like his father, marry and have children.
"He doesn't have to ask himself any questions. He just has to be at the place he's expected to go," said Chacour on Bookends with Mattea Roach.
But when Tarek falls for his patient's son, Ali, his life is turned upside-down as he realizes his sexuality against a backdrop of political turmoil in 1980s Cairo.
"There is this incompatibility between the tradition and what he feels inside. So what was not a pressure at first becomes a pressure and becomes impossible to avoid, so he has to make a decision, quite radical, and flee to Montreal."
Before their relationship inevitably blows up, a tender and complicated love blossoms between these two unlikely people.
"Tarek falls in love with Ali as much for the young and witty and then clever and vivid young man that he is, but also for the version of himself he could have been in another context," said Chacour.
Tarek and Ali couldn't be more different — they're of different religions, they're from different classes and of different ages — their only common point is that they're both men in Egypt at the end of the 20th century.
"I wanted to say something about this paradox that, what is in fact their only common point, becomes what condemns them the most, more than every other difference they have," said Chacour.
The Cairo of his parents
Chacour was born in Montreal to Egyptian parents and grew up between Quebec and France.
"I was fascinated by their stories, those of my parents, but also their friends, my uncles and aunts. You know, the end of supper, when everyone has been drinking too much and telling about their memories," he said.
Chacour, who has been to Egypt 15 times, found it hard to reckon with the place he heard about in stories and the one he's visited — so he turned to fiction to explore the French-speaking Christian community of his family.
"I wanted to recreate that environment, which doesn't exist any more… almost," he said.
The novel shows Egypt over the course of three presidents, numerous wars and how the Levantine community begins to feel alienated by their language and religion as the political landscape changes.
Writing about political turmoil in Egypt and the struggles of immigrating to Canada was a way for him to tap into his understanding of his family's story, while still bringing his imagination into it.
"I think writing inherently is an exercise of empathy. It's trying to be someone else, trying to find what the character's personal struggles are, the daily ordeals, that twist your stomach in the morning. And that's what is most important, for me, when writing."
Big in France
Chacour's knack for empathy resonated immediately with literary critics. But until recently, he was working in the financial sector, writing a novel on the side as a passion project, not thinking that anything would come of it.
After nearly ten years, however, Ce que je sais de toi, the book's French title, was accepted by the first publisher he submitted it to — Éditions Alto.
Despite being published in Quebec, the novel took off on the French literary award circuit, winning many big prizes, including the Prix Femina des lycéens and the Prix des cinq continents. Its English translation, What I Know About You, is also on major Canadian prize shortlists in 2024: the Giller Prize and the Atwood Gibson Fiction Prize.
Writing inherently is an exercise of empathy.- Éric Chacour
The novel is lauded for its exploration of politics and contemporary and historical issues, but for Chacour, that's just the background of what he was trying to do with the book.
"I always have journalists interviewing me and telling me, 'Oh wow, that's a sociological view of Egypt, that's an interesting dip into the Levantine community, it's a book dealing with the 2SLGBTQ+ difficulties at that time. So I was like, 'Yeah, yeah, this is what I have written, probably.'"
One day, however, Chacour heard an interview with one of the judges who picked What I Know About You for the Prix Femina des lycéens, an award given by teenagers. When asked about why they chose a book written in classical French, about a country they've likely never been to at the end of the 20th century, they didn't say anything about the political background of the book, but called it "an incredible ode to love," said Chacour.
"From that day on, I always try to say that if there was any intention in my writing, maybe this youngster was right. It was to write my marvellous ode to love."
This interview was produced by Talia Kliot and Barb Carey. It was edited for length and clarity.
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