Originally published in French as Un désir démesuré d’amitié (Seuil, 2024), the book explores friendship as a chosen form of kinship. Moving between essay and archival research, Giannecchini traces an alternative genealogy of queer lives across the 20th century.
From Casa Susanna in McCarthy-era America to the diary of a man living with HIV in France, and the work of photographer Donna Gottschalk, these fragments come together as a collective act of remembrance. An Army of Lovers Cannot Fail offers a reflection on friendship as both a personal bond and a political force.
Hélène Giannecchini invites us to explore the thousand and one ways of composing an alternative genealogy. Essay, non-fiction or novel? We can’t decide and we don’t need to, because this book is so powerful.
L’Humanité
A compelling work, between investigation and narrative.
Le Monde
Meet Hélène Giannecchini
- Tue 24 March, 18.00
House of Books and Friends, Manchester
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Wed 25 March, 18.30
Juno Books, Sheffield
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Thu 26 March, 18.30
Veranda Books, London
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About the Author
Hélène Giannecchini is a writer, curator and lecturer in history and contemporary art theory at the University of Lille. She is the author of Alix Cléo Roubaud: A Portrait in Fragments (tr. Thea Petrou), Voir de ses propres yeux (Seeing With Your Own Eyes), and An Army of Lovers Cannot Fail, all published in France by Éditions du Seuil.