French publisher’s jarring memoir to be released in English

NEW YORK — An English-language edition of “Le Consentement,” a French publisher’s jarring memoir about her abusive relationship as a teenager with a prominent writer in his 50s, will come out next year.

HarperVia, an imprint of HarperCollins Publishers, announced Monday that Vanessa Springora’s “Consent” will be released in the U.S. on Feb. 16. Spingora, now in her late 40s and head of the Julliard publishing house, alleges in her book that author Gabriel Matzneff met her when she was 13 and he was 50. She says they began a relationship when she was 14 and were together for two years. She would later suffer from depression.

“By setting his sights on young, lonely, vulnerable girls, whose parents either couldn’t cope or were actively negligent, G. knew that they would never threaten his reputation,” Springora writes. “And silence means consent.”

Matzneff, an award-winning author now in his 80s, has often written about his relationships with teenage girls but only in the #MeToo era were there legal and professional repercussions. He was charged earlier this year by a Paris court for sexual abuse. Springora’s book led to his being dropped by his publishers.

The Associated Press