Nathacha Appanah

How does one come to accept the unacceptable? In this intimate and moving investigation, Nathacha Appanah weaves together three stories of feminicide. Two of them died, her cousin in 2000, then Chahinez Daoud in 2021. The woman who escaped is the author of this story.

Nathacha Appanah interweaves three stories of women who have suffered violence at the hands of their husbands or partners. As one of them, she makes the link between two feminicides and the hold she endured in her youth. At once an intimate account, a confession, a duty to remember and a literary commitment, this novel is deeply moving. It deals with "the insidious mechanics of domination, which imprisons victims in silence and shame, fear and dependence". More than an investigation, it is above all a sensitive account of a quest for truth, which "scrutinizes the unbearable enigma of marital crime, when the dark night takes the place of love". An admirable and necessary book,
unanimously acclaimed and awarded the Femina 2025, the Goncourt des lycéens, the Renaudot 2025 des lycéens and the Prix Gisèle Halimi 2026.