Description

‘NDiaye will win the Nobel Prize’ New Yorker
A Booker International Prize Shortlistee and Winner of the Prix Goncourt.

The story of three women who say no: Norah, a French-born lawyer who finds herself in Senegal, summoned by her estranged father to save another victim of his paternity; Fanta, who leaves a contented life as a teacher in Dakar to follow her boyfriend back to France, where his depression and dislocation poison everything; and Khady, a penniless widow put out by her husband’s family with nothing but the name of a distant cousin in France.

In Marie NDiaye’s stunning narration we see the progress by which ordinary women discover unimagined reserves of strength.

Publisher Review

‘The prose compels with its astonishing range and precision’ Maya Jaggi, Guardian. * Guardian * ‘NDiaye was the first black woman to win the Prix Goncourt in 2009: the French equivalent of the Man Booker. I can see why. The novel has a passion, daring and individuality that makes it stand out’ Bernadine Evaristo, Independent. * Independent * ‘The youngest finalist for the Man Booker International prize, French-born NDiaye recalls Henry James’s prose style with her fondness for long, careful and psychologically complex sentences’ Sunday Herald. * Sunday Herald * ‘Extraordinarily powerful’ Kate Saunders, The Times. * The Times *