Marie Darrieussecq

Born in Germany in 1876, Paula Modersohn-Becker was the first female artist to paint herself not only naked but pregnant. Being Here is a moving account of the life of this ground-breaking Expressionist painter by the acclaimed French writer Marie Darrieussecq. Darrieussecq thrillingly describes Paula's discovery of her style and choice of subjects — women, babies, domestic life. She tells...

Sleepless is both a personal account of the author's inability to sleep and a poetic survey of a range of artists and others who have suffered from chronic insomnia—a book for everyone who has found sleep elusive. The world is divided into those who can sleep and those who can't. What is it like to live with chronic insomnia? For...

In the near future, a woman is writing in the depths of a forest. She’s cold. Her body is falling apart, as is the world around her. She’s lost the use of one eye; she’s down to one kidney, one lung. Before, in the city, she was a psychotherapist, treating patients who had suffered trauma, in particular a man, “the...

A powerful, hilarious and achingly honest story about a young French girl discovering her sexuality. Solange wants to have sex. Will it be with one of the boys at school? The exchange student? The fireman she meets at the disco when she sneaks out one night? Or with Arnaud, the coolest boy she knows? She'd like to see more of...

For fans of Rachel Cusk, Crossed Lines is a critique of a woman's midlife, middle-class crisis of conscience, told through the astute and clever voice of one of France's most prolific writers. Translated by Penny Hueston. When her mother offers Rose a Mediterranean cruise with her two children, she jumps at the chance to get away from her husband who...

Set in the Blue Mountains and in Sydney, Tom is Dead is a suspense novel about grief. The narrator's son has been dead for ten years; he was four and a half. For the first time since that day, she spends a few minutes without thinking of him. To stop herself from forgetting, she tries to write Tom's story, the...

The Baby is a mother's project and a writer's project—how to reconcile these two demanding roles? What is a baby? And why are there so few of them in literature? Through notes taken in the months after her first child was born, Darrieussecq, in her characteristically ingenious style, makes observations that will bring smiles and grimaces of recognition, and raise...

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...