Marouane Bakhti Marouane Bakhti is the author of the debut novel How to Leave the World. Sign up for our newsletter Subscribe to get our newsletter, for the latest reviews, essays and interviews delivered straight to your inbox! Advertisement Writing on Public Books Reviews “The Lover” @40: A Roundtable What, almost 15 years after it was a set text on an undergraduate French literature syllabus, still drew me to “The Lover?” I put this question to a group of other writers.