One picture, two pandemics: Simon Chevrier’s novel “Photo on request”

Photo on request: This is a standard formula on dating apps when private pictures, mostly nudes, should not be visible to all members of the platform, but should only be released through direct contact. Pictures are important, especially for escorts, no customer buys a pig in a poke. The formula signals cool, transactional businessmanship in a field of intimacy and exposure. The novel by the author Simon Chevrier, born in 1992, is cool and at the same time revealing and received the “Prix Goncourt du premier roman” in 2025, the highest award for a debut in France. It is now available in German, in the excellent translation by Christian Ruzicska.