A Hymn to Life

Extraordinarily courageous … what makes it so compelling is that it shows what happens when an atomic bomb of cruelty erupts within a seemingly normal family … Her modest humility makes her courage all the more impressive

The Times

A unique memoir by a figure of astonishing power … alive with the kind of detail that wouldn’t look out of place in a good novel ... Pelicot's riveting account of her ordeal refuses to conform to any agenda but her own

Guardian

Gisèle's humility and courage elevates A Hymn to Life ... What makes it so compelling is that it shows what happens when an atomic bomb of cruelty erupts within a seemingly normal family … The book's translators, Natasha Lehrer and Ruth Diver, have done an excellent job of capturing Pelicot’s tone of determined control and occasional broken anguish

Hadley Freeman, Sunday Times *Book of the Week*

Extraordinary … a powerful tale of a mighty woman

Daily Telegraph

An emblem of resilience for women everywhere

Vogue

The bravest woman in the world ... A powerful and devastating memoir

Daily Mirror

[A Hymn to Life] is gripping, it is heart-breaking, it is beautifully written

Lulu Garcia-Navarro, New York Times

Stunning, admirable

Elle

A Hymn to Life is a reminder of organised narrative’s simple power ... Replete with details of modest domesticity in modern France, A Hymn to Life is also a rousing feminist manifesto ... It seeks a proper transfer of shame from sex-crime victims to their perpetrators, and the perpetrators’ enablers

New York Times Book Review