consideratehttps://www.theguardian.com/books/2026/may/27/leila-slimani-literature-erotic-goyas-prado
“Literature is probably the best way to give justice back to people who are not understood or listened to. A writer can go very deep into someone’s mind and try to put light on contradictions. And as a reader, you feel empathy and tenderness for this human being that probably in real life you would never have.”
‘Writing is exactly like love – you need to do it in the dark’: novelist Leila Slimani on why literature is erotic
Now in residence at the Madrid Prado, the author talks about its dark, inspirational Goyas, the clandestine nature of her writing – and why she finally wrote about her jailed then posthumously exonerated father