How to Make a Woman

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.

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

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

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

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