Marie Darrieussecq

About

Marie Darrieussecq is a French novelist, essayist, translator, and psychoanalyst born in Bayonne, in the French Basque Country, in 1969. She studied literature at the École normale supérieure in Paris and became known for her inventive approach to fiction, often blending realism with surrealism to explore identity, gender, and the human body. Darrieussecq achieved international recognition with her debut novel, Pig Tales (1996), a provocative satire about a woman who gradually transforms into a pig. The book became a bestseller in France and was translated into numerous languages. She has since published more than twenty books, including My Phantom Husband (1998), Tom Is Dead (2007), Men (2013), which won the Prix Médicis, and Our Life in the Forest (2017). Alongside her fiction, Darrieussecq has written literary criticism and journalism and translated works from English into French. Her writing frequently examines women’s experiences, memory, sexuality, violence, and the boundaries between reality and imagination. Her novel How to Make a Woman (2025) continues her exploration of female identity through the intertwined lives of two childhood friends whose paths diverge as they navigate adulthood, relationships, and social expectations. Darrieussecq lives in Paris.

Books on TheBookRoads

All genres Literary Fiction Fiction

All themes Coming of Age

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How to Make a Woman

How to Make a Woman follows Rose and Solange, two lifelong friends growing up in a small village in the French Basque Country during the 1980s. Although they share a childhood, their lives begin to diverge dramatically as they enter adulthood. Rose, thoughtful and conventional, moves to Bordeaux to study psychology while maintaining her relationship with her childhood sweetheart, Christian. Solange, rebellious and restless, becomes pregnant at fifteen and eventually leaves her familiar surroundings to pursue a career as an actress. As their paths take them through Bordeaux, Paris, London, and Hollywood, the two women confront the expectations imposed on them by society, the demands of relationships, and the challenges of defining themselves on their own terms. Their friendship endures despite their differences, revealing how women can remain connected even as their lives move in opposite directions. With wit and emotional precision, Darrieussecq explores female friendship, sexuality, motherhood, ambition, and the social forces that shape women’s identities. The novel offers a nuanced portrait of growing up and becoming oneself in a world that continually tries to define what a woman should be.

2026 France