Fernanda Eberstadt: Stories of the Body Militant

We are absolutely thrilled to be welcoming American writer Fernanda Eberstadt to celebrate the publication of her latest subversive book, Bite Your Friends. In this extraordinary, genre-bending memoir, Fernanda writes a history of the body as a site of resistance to power, exploring the lives of outrageously brave men and women - saints, philosophers, artists - who have used their own wounded or stigmatized bodies to challenge society.

Bite Your Friends’ heroes include the ancient Greek philosopher Diogenes who lived “a dog’s life” in the public square; early Christian martyrs Saints Perpetua and Felicitas; and twentieth-century prophets of bodily freedom filmmaker-poet Pier Paolo Pasolini and Michel Foucault. The book features interviews with the Russian punk feminist group Pussy Riot, and the political artist Piotr Pavlensky (who nailed his scrotum to the pavement of Red Square to protest Vladimir Putin’s tyranny).

Running through the narrative is Fernanda's own story and that of her mother, a New York writer and 1960s glamour figure, whose illness-scarred body first led Fernanda to seek the connections between beauty, belief, and the truths taught by bodily and psychic pain.

Praised by Olivia Laing as 'ravishing and provocative' and by André Aciman as 'a stunning and powerful book,' we can't wait to hear directly from Fernanda and hope you can join us for what promises to be a most captivating evening!