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He lost his wife in the Paris attacks — but he refuses to hate her killers

Two days after the November 2015 terror attacks in Paris, a man named Antoine Leiris wrote a Facebook post about his murdered wife that quickly went viral. Hélène Muyal-Leiris was one of the 89 people killed at the Bataclan theater during a concert by the Eagles of Death Metal band. Her death left Antoine alone to care for the couple’s young son. In the now-famous Facebook post, framed as an open letter to the terrorists, Leiris declared: “You will not have my hatred… I will not give you the satisfaction of hating you.”

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Leiris is now out with a new book, “You Will Not Have My Hate,” which describes his life in the weeks after the coordinated attacks on several sites around Paris. VICE News sat down with the author to talk about writing, grieving, and the possibility of reserving hate while still refusing to forgive.