Guillaume Dustan, born William Baranès in 1965 in Paris, was a former student of the Parisian École nationale d’administration (ENA, in the class of 1991, ‘Victor Hugo’), having previously taken Sciences Po (Political Sciences) and preparatory classes for literary studies. Upon graduating from the ENA, he became an administrative magistrate, successively assigned to Versailles, Paris, and then Papeete. He began a trilogy of autofiction with Dans ma chambre (In My Room), which he started writing in Paris and finished in Polynesia. The first of three volumes was published in 1996 by P.O.L. under the pseudonym Guillaume Dustan, chosen to preserve, at least initially, his position as a magistrate. The trilogy continued with Je sors ce soir (I’m Going Out Tonight, 1997) and Plus fort que moi (Stronger Than Me, 1998). In these three works, the author addresses his experience of homosexuality, HIV positivity, drug use, and sadomasochism. The writing is deliberately simple, repetitive, and detached from traditional narrative codes.