Laurent Binet turns his eye on the Lafarge trial
In a new book, the novelist recounts two months spent watching the cement giant's trial over payments to jihadist groups in Syria, and what it showed him about capitalism's contradictions.
At the end of 2025, Laurent Binet followed the trial of the cement company Lafarge, accused of paying jihadist groups to keep its factory running in Syria. He turned that experience into a book, Le visage du capital, published by Albin Michel, which recounts two months spent immersed in the world of justice, according to Livres Hebdo.
In an interview with the trade magazine, Binet looks back on what he calls an unprecedented experience for him as a writer: sitting through a trial not as a novelist inventing a courtroom scene, but as an observer of one actually unfolding. He says the Lafarge case exposed what he describes as the insoluble contradictions of capitalism, though the interview as reported does not detail the specific arguments or evidence that led him to that conclusion.
Binet is known for blending historical and documentary material with fiction, notably in HHhH and Civilizations. Le visage du capital appears to continue that method by turning to a real, recent trial rather than an invented one.
No further detail on the book's structure, length or release date beyond what Livres Hebdo reports was available at the time of writing.
Sources
This article was written from these reports.
