In France, literature is a blood sport. A high-profile defamation case against author Cécile Desprairies has ignited a national debate on the ethics of "autofiction"—the blurring of real life and novels. Desprairies is being sued by her own brother and cousin, who claim her novel La Propagandiste is an act of "family vengeance" disguised as art.

The book, longlisted for the Prix Goncourt, depicts a mother who collaborated with the Nazis during the Vichy regime. While Desprairies calls it fiction inspired by truth, her family argues it is a character assassination of their ancestors, lacking historical evidence.

"The Family is Finished"

Quoting Czesław Miłosz ("When a writer is born into a family, the family is finished"), the plaintiffs are demanding the book be pulped. They argue that changing a few names does not give an author the right to settle scores in print.

• The Legal Precedent: This case touches on the "right to oblivion" and privacy laws in France, which are stricter than in the US or UK. If the court rules against Desprairies, it could chill the booming genre of autofiction, popularized by writers like Annie Ernaux and Édouard Louis.
• The Defense: Desprairies’ lawyers argue that fiction is a "liberated space." They contend that once a person is dead, their memory is open to interpretation. "You cannot defame a ghost," a legal expert noted.

A Universal Conflict

The trial resonates beyond France. In an era where everyone is writing a memoir or a Substack, the question of who owns the "truth" of a shared past is increasingly litigious. For Desprairies, the cost of literary acclaim may be the permanent loss of her family.