Rousseau's Lost Children
By (Author) Gavin McCrea
John Murray Press
John Murray Publishers Ltd
24th February 2026
United Kingdom
General
Non Fiction
Biography: philosophy and social sciences
Ethics and moral philosophy
320
Width 153mm, Height 234mm
41g
Paris, 2022. Gavin, a middle-aged academic, has left his boyfriend Pedro behind in Ireland so he can concentrate on finishing his long-delayed book on Jean-Jacques Rousseau. As a young queer man, he was inspired by the philosopher's ideas of social truth and equality, but a traumatic event has given him writer's block. As Gavin begins his residency at an Irish seminary on the Left Bank, he avoids work on his book by writing emails and letters - letters that reveal hidden motives for coming to Paris. Letters about his reluctance to have children with Pedro. Letters to Cyprien Abreu, a Sorbonne professor of the Enlightenment with whom Gavin is obsessed. And letters to Jean-Jacques Rousseau asking whether the great man will take walks with him so that Gavin can question him about human nature.
Paris, 1777. Jean-Jacques Rousseau replies to Gavin's letters and agrees to meet him for walks, despite his preference for solitude. He is nearing his death and is eager to give an honest account of his life. But as Gavin and Jean-Jacques wander the crowded streets of eighteenth-century Paris, visiting beggars and aristocrats, and discussing Rousseau's relationships with women and children, it becomes clear that Gavin doesn't just want to interrogate Rousseau about the flaws in his arguments. He wants to understand his own false reasoning. Can talking and walking with Jean-Jacques lead Gavin to truth and atonement, to honesty with Pedro, and to an understanding of what love, society and family really mean to himPraise for Cells * : *
'Flayingly authentic and sensationally compelling . . . One of the best books of the year' * Observer *
Cells is a raw, throbbing thing; the literary equivalent of an open wound, but one that's been cauterised by a highly skilled surgeon . . . the story of the making of an acutely talented writer . . . One of the very best, most authentic, beautiful, and brutal depictions of a deep and abiding, albeit imperfect love between a son and his mother * The Telegraph *
'Raw and deeply affecting' * Guardian *
'A heart-stopping excavation of the self . . . Cells will heighten the capacity for empathy in all who read it. Not least of all, empathy for the self' * Irish Times *
'Beautifully written, fearless, vulnerable, self-aware . . . Cells will comfortably sit alongside other great Irish memoirs by Nuala O'Faolain and John McGahern' -- Colum McCann
Gavin McCrea's first novel, Mrs Engels (2015), was shortlisted for the Desmond Elliot Prize and the Walter Scott Prize, and longlisted for the Guardian First Book Award. His second novel, The Sisters Mao (2021), received high acclaim internationally. His first work of non-fiction, Cells (2022), was chosen as a book of the year by The Observer, The Irish Times and the Irish Independent. His articles have appeared in The Paris Review, The Guardian, The Irish Times, The Dublin Review, Lithub and Catapult.