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A compelling and deeply unsettling dystopian novel from one of France's most acclaimed literary talents

About the Author

Marie Darrieussecq is a French writer born in Bayonne in 1969. Her first novel, Pig Tales, was published in 1996 and subsequently translated into thirty-five languages. She has written some fifteen books for adults, including novels, short fiction, a play, and nonfiction works. In 2013 she was awarded both the Prix Médicis and the Prix des Prix for her novel Men. Being Here, her biography of Paula Modersohn-Becker, was released in 2016. She is a regular contributor to contemporary art magazines in France and Britain and also writes for Libération and Charlie Hebdo. She lives in Paris.

Reviews

‘The reader will be captivated by Darrieussecq’s hypnotic style.’
*Le Monde*

‘The title could be “Our Life in the Future”, but reducing this book to a dystopian tale is doing it a disservice…A journal from beyond the grave, as time runs out…And a profound novel about loneliness.’
*Libération*

‘In this exceptional novel, the author of Pig Tales describes a world in the future where surveillance is omnipresent and clones rule…An unusual, strange book.’
*L’Observateur*

‘A disturbing dystopian tale in which tragedy and irony work together…Ingeniously and brilliantly, Marie Darrieussecq’s sparkling tale adds to the classics of futuristic fiction. Even more profound than the social and political resonance of this novel is the theme of loneliness.’
*Télérama*

‘In this brilliantly executed dystopia, Marie Darrieussecq writes with rare skill about the concerns of our time—the senseless destruction of the planet and transhumanist madness. Outstanding.’
*Le Matin Dimanche*

‘Who would have thought Marie Darrieussecq would write a thriller? This brief, feminist and political novel is perhaps her most inventive…With wit and elegance, the author takes us into a narrative full of tension, and with the same humour as in Pig Tales. Once again, she creates an absurd world, and denounces the failings of our society.’
*Les Inrockuptibles*

‘Once again, Darrieusecq gives us a passionate investigation into the deficiencies, transformations and lapses in our humanity…A little like Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451, she shows how literature is our best means to disrupt functionality.
*Focus Vif*

‘Darrieussecq’s writing brings the story to life vividly in your mind.’
*Good Reading*

‘Our Life in the Forest is a psychologically astute novel, with a few well-executed twists that will no doubt please fans of the genre.’
*Saturday Paper*

‘Darrieussecq writes with a kind of truncated brevity that is stark, muscular and direct. The effect is immediately arresting…[Our Life in the Forest] is Atwoodesque, melding some of the brutal and unpleasant aspects of our current moment into a plausible but avoidable future.’
*Overland*

‘Speaks to the heart of what it is to be human.’
*Otago Daily Times*

‘Darrieussecq’s prose style is succinct and muscular, characterised by short sentences and a strong sense of the narrator’s bleakly comic take on life.’
*ArtsHub*