Rose and Solange are lifelong friends, growing up together in the Basque region of France in the 1980s. Their paths are intertwined, yet they enter adulthood on radically different footing: Rose, who prizes stability above all else, moves to Bordeaux to study psychology and remains committed to her childhood sweetheart, Christian; rebellious Solange shakes off her old connections and moves from Bordeaux to Paris to London in pursuit of a life on the stage. In How to Make a Woman, we follow the young women's experiences of adolescence, love, sex, work and motherhood, as they negotiate their places in the world and find their own versions of fulfilment. Written with humour and heart, Marie Darrieussecq's latest novel is an electrifying, sometimes brutal portrait of female friendship and of two identities under construction, by 'one of the most original voices in contemporary French literature' (Times Literary Supplement).



Marie Darrieussecq was born in Bayonne in 1969 and is recognized as one of the leading voices of contemporary French literature. Her first novel, Pig Tales, was translated into thirty-five languages. In 2013 Marie Darrieussecq was awarded the Prix Médicis and the Prix des Prix for her novel Men. How to Make a Woman was awarded the Grand Prix de l'Héroïne Madame Figaro 2024. She has written art criticism and journalism for a number of publications, including Libération and Charlie Hebdo, and is also a translator from English and has practised as a psychoanalyst. She lives in Paris.