A woman wrote her father’s eulogy in her head years before he died, rehearsing sentences she would never let him hear while she still fed him, bathed him, and forgave him nothing. That is the emotional territory of Before I Forget by Anne Pauly, a touching and surprisingly funny meditation on caring for ageing abusive parents that has quietly become one of the most talked-about grief memoirs in contemporary French literature, and is now arriving for English-language readers through Two Lines Press on October 13, 2026 [1].

Key Takeaways

• Before I Forget by Anne Pauly gets its first official English translation from Two Lines Press on October 13, 2026, a 160-page paperback [1].
• The book is described in new reviews as a touching and surprisingly funny meditation on caring for ageing abusive parents, centered on a violent alcoholic father who never admits his harm [7].
• The original French edition, Avant que j’oublie, won the 2020 Prix du Livre Inter and Prix Robert Walser after Goncourt, Femina, and Wepler nominations [3][6][9].
• Critics consistently frame the memoir as “tragi-comic,” blending raw pain with dark, disarming humor [3][10].
• A German edition, Bevor ich es vergesse, arrived in 2024, extending the book’s reach across Europe [4][8].

What Before I Forget by Anne Pauly Is Actually About

At its core, the book is a meditation on mourning a father who was simultaneously abusive and vulnerable, and it never lets readers settle into a single, comfortable emotion about him [1][7]. Pauly’s father is portrayed as a violent alcoholic who spent decades terrorizing his wife and daughter, yet who, as an old man facing death, still refuses to acknowledge the damage he caused [7]. Rather than resolving that contradiction, the narrative sits inside it. A recent English-language review published in late September 2026 calls the result a deeply personal account of grief that directly interrogates why adult children keep caring for parents who hurt them [7].

That question, why keep showing up, is the engine of the entire book. It does not offer easy answers or a tidy redemption arc. Instead, it documents the daily, unglamorous logistics of caregiving layered on top of decades of unresolved harm.

From Avant que j’oublie to Before I Forget by Anne Pauly: A Publishing Timeline

The book’s journey across languages and editions shows just how far its reputation has traveled since its debut. Consider the timeline:

• August 2019: Éditions Verdier releases the original French edition, Avant que j’oublie, a 192-page book that quickly becomes a literary event [2][5].
• 2020: The novel wins the Prix du Livre Inter and the Prix Robert Walser, after earning shortlist nominations for the Prix Femina, Prix Wepler, and the prestigious Prix Goncourt [3][6][9].
• October 2021: A pocket edition appears in France, signaling sustained reader demand well beyond its debut year [2].
• April 11, 2024: A German translation, Bevor ich es vergesse, is published in hardcover, described by German cultural outlets as an acclaimed French novel about saying goodbye to a dying father [4][8].
• October 13, 2026: Two Lines Press publishes Before I Forget, the English-language edition, as a 160-page paperback [1].

This steady march from a French debut to multiple European translations reflects the book’s staying power as more than a passing literary trend.

Why Critics Call It a Touching and Surprisingly Funny Meditation on Caring for Ageing Abusive Parents

Humor is not incidental here; it is structural. Pauly has said in interviews that she often finds a way to amuse herself with tragic material, a habit that shapes the book’s entire voice [10]. Villa Albertine, which has profiled her work, describes the novel as tragi-comic, oscillating between emotion and truculence, between grief and biting wit [3].

“A deeply personal account of grief” that asks why adult children still care for parents who caused them profound harm [7].

French radio coverage of her Prix du Livre Inter win noted that Pauly recounts her mourning while openly describing domestic violence and alcoholism, refusing to soften either the humor or the horror [6][9]. That refusal to pick one tone over the other is exactly why the 2026 English-language framing lands so precisely: a touching and surprisingly funny meditation on caring for ageing abusive parents, rather than a straightforward tragedy or a straightforward comedy.

The Emotional Core: Caregiving Without Forgiveness

What separates this memoir from typical grief literature is that reconciliation is never guaranteed or even fully achieved. The father in the book never accepts responsibility for the violence he inflicted, yet the daughter keeps caring for him anyway, right up to the end of his life [7]. That tension, between ongoing duty and unresolved anger, is the emotional core recent reviewers keep returning to when introducing the book to new English-speaking audiences [7].

Conclusion

Before I Forget by Anne Pauly succeeds precisely because it refuses to simplify. It sits with anger, comedy, exhaustion, and love in the same paragraph, sometimes the same sentence. Readers drawn to honest depictions of family caregiving, especially where love and harm are tangled together, should watch for the October 13, 2026 English release from Two Lines Press [1]. Those who read French or German can already explore the acclaimed original editions to see why the book earned major literary prizes years before this translation arrived [2][3][4][6].

References

[1] Before I Forget – https://www.twolinespress.com/shop/books/before-i-forget [2] Anne Pauly Avant Que J Oublie – https://www.fnac.com/a16132717/Anne-Pauly-Avant-que-j-oublie [3] Anne Pauly – https://villa-albertine.org/va/residents/anne-pauly/ [4] penguin.de – https://www.penguin.de/buecher/anne-pauly-bevor-ich-es-vergesse/buch/9783630876689 [5] Anne Pauly Avant Que J Oublie – https://www.fnac.com/a13524161/Anne-Pauly-Avant-que-j-oublie [6] Anne Pauly Laureate Du Prix Du Livre Inter 2020 Avec Son Premier Roman Avant Que J Oublie 1237612 – https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/anne-pauly-laureate-du-prix-du-livre-inter-2020-avec-son-premier-roman-avant-que-j-oublie-1237612 [7] Forget Anne Pauly Touching Surprisingly 110251103 – https://uk.news.yahoo.com/forget-anne-pauly-touching-surprisingly-110251103.html [8] Roman Bevor Ich Es Vergesse Abschied Vom Sterbenden Vater,pauly114 – https://www.ndr.de/kultur/buch/tipps/Roman-Bevor-ich-es-vergesse-Abschied-vom-sterbenden-Vater,pauly114.html [9] Anne Pauly Laureate Du Prix Du Livre Inter 2020 9963452 – https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceinter/podcasts/l-invite-de-8h20-le-grand-entretien/anne-pauly-laureate-du-prix-du-livre-inter-2020-9963452 [10] Anne Pauly Le Tragique Je Trouve Souvent Le Moyen De M En Amuser 3745805 – https://www.radiofrance.fr/franceculture/podcasts/le-reveil-culturel/anne-pauly-le-tragique-je-trouve-souvent-le-moyen-de-m-en-amuser-3745805