Winner of the Grand Prix de l’héroïne, 2024, Darrieussecq's new novel explores feminine identity and social pressures upon women through the story of an intense friendship

Rose tries to appeal to Solange. ‘You and I are alike,’ she says. ‘We might have been alike when we were little, but the truth is that we’re not at all the same.’

Rose, a psychotherapist, and Solange, an actress, are very different, one diligent and loyal, the other rebellious and self-centred, but they have been best friends forever, despite their contrasting social backgrounds. In How to Make a Woman, we follow the young women’s experiences of adolescence, love, sex, work and motherhood, as they negotiate their place in the world.

This lively portrait of female friendship, of two identities under construction, of ‘what gets done to women’, is also a snapshot of French provincial life in the eighties and nineties. Written with humour and heart, How to Make a Woman is another sparkling novel by one of France’s most renowned contemporary writers.

Details

ISBN13: 9781923058552
Format: Paperback / softback
Number of Pages: 304
Edition:
Publication Date:
Publisher: Text Publishing
Publication City, Country: Melbourne, Australia
Dimensions (cm): 23.4(H)x15.3(L)
Weight (gm):

Author Biography

Marie Darrieussecq was born in Bayonne in 1969. Her first novel, Pig Tales, was translated into thirty-five languages. She has published more than twenty books and been awarded numerous prizes. Text has published Tom Is Dead, All the Way, Men, Being Here: The Life of Paula Modersohn-Becker, Our Life in the Forest, The Baby, Crossed Lines, Sleepless and How to Make a Woman. Darrieussecq has written art criticism and journalism, is a translator from English and has practised as a psychoanalyst. She lives in Paris.

Reviews

‘It’s impossible to stop turning these pages…profoundly original.’

‘Darrieussecq’s prose is immediate, lively and unforced, a tour de force.’

‘Shows us the price women pay to become what is expected of them.’

‘At once intelligent, insightful, mischievous and tender.’