She’s living a perfect life – so why does Laurence feel so torn?
Weekends in the country, weekdays in Paris – Laurence’s life features all the trappings of 1960s French bourgeoisie. She has money, a handsome husband, two daughters and a lover. She also has a successful career as an advertising copywriter, though her mind writes copy while she’s at home, and dreams of domesticity in the office.
All her life she has strived to meet the expectations of others. But when her 10-year-old daughter, Catherine, starts to vocalise her despair about the unfairness of the world, Laurence must finally grapple with a life that prizes image over truth.
Slim but powerful, this is a classic story of womanhood and its oppressors, parents and their children, and the quest for personal truth – by the iconic feminist Simone de Beauvoir.
TRANSLATED BY LAUREN ELKIN
'The best book I've read so far this year' The Times
'Beautifully written, what surprises is how very modern this feminist rite of passage feels' Daily Mail
‘A lethally moving portrait of female alienation and resistance’ Adam Thirlwell
Arvustused
This timeless and surprisingly jocular novel has the same richness of feeling and continental sophistication as Annie Ernauxs auto-fiction, plus a dash of the wealthy carelessness found in F Scott Fitzgeralds best known works Its the best book Ive read so far this year * The Times * Only the best books can connect you to the past in the way this one does And de Beauvoirs writing takes your breath away * Country & Town House, *Christmas Gift Guide 2025* *
Simone de Beauvoir (Author) Simone de Beauvoir was born in Paris in 1908. In 1929 she became the youngest person ever to obtain the agrégation in philosophy at the Sorbonne, placing second to Jean-Paul Sartre. She taught at the lycées at Marseille and Rouen from 1931-1937, and in Paris from 1938-1943. After the war, she emerged as one of the leaders of the existentialist movement, working with Sartre on Les Temps Mordernes. The author of several books including The Mandarins (1957) which was awarded the Prix Goncourt, de Beauvoir was one of the most influential thinkers of her generation. She died in 1986.
Lauren Elkin (Translator) Lauren Elkin is the author of several critically-acclaimed books, including Scaffolding, Art Monsters, and Flâneuse. Her essays on art, literature, and culture have appeared in the London Review of Books, the New York Times, Granta, Harper's, Le Monde, Les Inrockuptibles, and Frieze, among others. An award-winning translator, she lives between Paris and London.
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