How to Make a Woman

‘Darrieussecq is one of the most prolific and distinguished living writers in France with a truly impressive body of work.’
— Samantha Harvey, Guardian

‘Susan Sontag once wrote: “To be a woman is to be an actress. Being feminine is a kind of theatre”. In How to Make a Woman Marie Darrieussecq explores this proposition, pulling back the curtain on the charades of femininity with clarity and empathy.’
— Alice Blackhurst, Times Literary Supplement

'A lucid, clear-eyed and strangely comforting novel about the paths two friends take away from each other. Rose and Solange are like bright stars burning in the night sky.'
— Amina Cain, author of Indelicacy

'I read this novel fast, I love how it moves swiftly through a decade of life. It made me think about time and how we spend it, about being a girl, and about the different ways two people experience the same moment. It also has the truest childbirth scene I’ve ever read, and a glimpse of Prince.'
— Daisy Hildyard, author of Emergency

'Marie Darrieussecq courses through dark places with such buoyant energy that you emerge exhilarated.'
— Helen Garner, author of Monkey Grip

‘How to Make a Woman is so addictive that the temptation to read it in one sitting is strong, though slow readers might be even more rewarded. Would you risk missing how gracefully Marie Darrieussecq embeds Solange’s and Rose’s personal narratives into the transformations of French society at the turn of the twenty-first century ? How subtly she weaves together their shifting point of views? And how powerfully she questions the construction of masculinity and femininity in her era? How to Make a Woman is all at once intelligent, insightful, mischievous and tender.’
— Albertine