Violette Leduc: 3 books

Two French schoolgirls discover obsessive pleasures in repressed secrets in this “masterpiece on the tyranny of love” (Independent, UK). “Violette Leduc was Simone de Beauvoir’s protege, an erotic writer to match Jean Genet and a feminist tour de force” (Rafia Zakaria, The Guardian)....

Censored in France in 1954, Therese and Isabelle was published for the first time in its full original version in 2000. Leduc's novella follows the story of a passionate love affair between two schoolgirls, aiming to describe 'as exactly, as minutely as possible the sensations of physical love'.

Trapped in the depths of poverty, an old woman escapes into an existence where objects, streets, and entire cities have voices and personalities. Told with a feather-light touch and masterful compassion, this is a story for those moments when we catch ourselves talking to the furniture.