A Hymn to Life
Shame has to Change Sides
Gisèle Pelicot author Natasha Lehrer translator Ruth Diver translator
Format:Paperback
Publisher:Vintage Publishing
Publishing:4th Mar '27
£12.99
This title is due to be published on 4th March, and will be despatched as soon as possible.
This paperback is available in another edition too:
- Hardback£22.00(9781847928962)
The sexual assault that rocked the world. A courageous woman’s rallying call for ‘shame to change sides’. For the very first time, Gisèle Pelicot tells her story.
'This is quite something –a really brave, honest and heart-rending memoir' SARAH JESSICA PARKER
'Extraordinary … inspires courage and compassion, but also, crucially, demands change' EMMA THOMPSON
'A page-turning memoir that will move you to live more' GINA MARTIN
A BEST BOOK OF 2026 FOR THE OBSERVER, TELEGRAPH, GUARDIAN, FINANCIAL TIMES, NEW YORK TIMES, DAILY MIRROR, IRISH TIMES, GQ MAGAZINE, LIT HUB, BBC AND MORE
One November day, Gisèle Pelicot was called to a local police station and life as she knew it ended. Her husband of fifty years had been caught by a supermarket guard filming up women’s skirts. But on his computer was shattering evidence: for nearly a decade, he had been secretly drugging and raping her and inviting dozens of strangers into their home to abuse her.
Four years later, he and fifty other men were put on trial and Gisèle’s courage in waiving her right to anonymity made global headlines. ‘Shame must change sides,’ she declared, giving voice and hope to millions. Her words became a rallying cry and her decision marked a turning point in public feeling about sexual violence.
For the first time, and with unwavering honesty and grace, she describes a difficult childhood, first love, her career and motherhood. It is a life in determined search of happiness, both before and after her devastating discovery. She is an ordinary person who faces extraordinary catastrophe, whose example changes the world.
Ultimately, Gisèle Pelicot emerges with a renewed passion and reverence for living, and for love. A Hymn to Life is an unforgettable testament and promise: that victims have no reason to feel ashamed; that even after unimaginable betrayal we can go on; and that colour will always return to life.
‘A Hymn to Life is novelistic and resounds with grace … An extraordinary achievement’ FINANCIAL TIMES
‘A unique memoir by a figure of astonishing power’GUARDIAN
‘Extraordinarily courageous’THE TIMES
Extraordinary … vibrates with necessity … A Hymn to Life is novelistic and resounds with grace. The language is precise and vivid; the story reverberates with echoes and patterns … an extraordinary achievement … There is beauty, love, hope. And there is rage, loss and fear of the void beneath her feet ... Many could be enriched by this alertly human account of 70 years of life. Here is a perspective that is full, candid and instructive * Financial Times *
Extraordinarily courageous … what makes it so compelling is that it shows what happens when an atomic bomb of cruelty erupts within a seemingly normal family … Her modest humility makes her courage all the more impressive * The Times *
A unique memoir by a figure of astonishing power … alive with the kind of detail that wouldn’t look out of place in a good novel ... Pelicot's riveting account of her ordeal refuses to conform to any agenda but her own * Guardian *
Gisèle's humility and courage elevates A Hymn to Life ... What makes it so compelling is that it shows what happens when an atomic bomb of cruelty erupts within a seemingly normal family … The book's translators, Natasha Lehrer and Ruth Diver, have done an excellent job of capturing Pelicot’s tone of determined control and occasional broken anguish -- Hadley Freeman * Sunday Times *Book of the Week* *
Extraordinary … a powerful tale of a mighty woman * Daily Telegraph *
An emblem of resilience for women everywhere * Vogue *
The bravest woman in the world ... A powerful and devastating memoir * Daily Mirror *
[A Hymn to Life] is gripping, it is heart-breaking, it is beautifully written -- Lulu Garcia-Navarro * New York Times *
Stunning, admirable * Elle *
A Hymn to Life is a reminder of organised narrative’s simple power ... Replete with details of modest domesticity in modern France, A Hymn to Life is also a rousing feminist manifesto ... It seeks a proper transfer of shame from sex-crime victims to their perpetrators, and the perpetrators’ enablers * New York Times Book Review *
ISBN: 9781529969771
Dimensions: 198mm x 129mm x 17mm
Weight: 186g
256 pages