The Baby

‘An enchanting book…moving, funny, profound. And never sentimental.’ * Madame Figaro *
‘Without seeming to, Marie Darrieussecq gives us an example of what literature can achieve. It is a rare thing.’ * Humanité *
‘The reader will be captivated by Darrieussecq’s hypnotic style.’ * Le Monde on Our Life in the Forest *
‘There are few writers who may have changed my perception of the world, but Darrieussecq is one of them.’ * The Times on Men *
‘Darrieussecq evokes the awe, fear and weirdness of motherhood, the demolition of certainty, an instinct for rapture. She puts her hand in the great dark lake of maternal experience and scoops up filigrees of the phosphorescent memory all mothersshare, turns them gleaming in the light of her words, one after another. I was disturbed, envious, enthralled.’ * Kate Holden, author of In My Skin and The Romantic *
‘Vintage Darrieussecq: tender, disturbing and indelible.’ * Chloe Hooper *
‘Darrieussecq ruminates on both the magical and trivial ins-and-outs of motherhood and contemplates topical questions around how we define mothers. The book is as much of a must-read for those with children, as it is for those considering whether (or not) to have them.’ * Elle *
‘Darrieussecq has a force of clarity, an ability to take herself seriously without the need for self-deprecation. She is always original, always thrilling.’ * Australian *
’[Penny] Hueston has obviously captured the original pulse of the language, not an easy task.’ * Australian *
‘Darrieussecq captures the fleeting, endless drift of life with a small child…feelings that Darrieussecq understands only too well and about which she is unflinchingly honest.’ * Otago Daily Times *
‘[Darrieussecq’s] account is visceral yet detached, bodily yet scientific. Reading her text, I’m reminded of Maggie Nelson’s breathtaking The Argonauts – both clash the physical and taboo with the philosophical and the literary. But what is so crucial to Nelson’s and Darrieussecq’s work is that, somehow, there is no clash. The worlds meld seamlessly together, as though they should have always been that way.’ * Lifted Brow *
‘What a strangely hypnotic book The Baby is…The writing is beautiful, as clear as a glass of water.’ * NZ Listener *

Marie Darrieussecq (Author)

Marie Darrieussecq was born in Bayonne in 1969. Her first novel, Pig Tales, was translated into thirty-five languages. She has published more than twenty books and been awarded numerous prizes. Text has published Tom Is Dead, All the Way, Men, Being Here: The Life of Paula Modersohn-Becker, Our Life in the Forest, The Baby, Crossed Lines, Sleepless and How to Make a Woman. Darrieussecq has written art criticism and journalism, is a translator from English and has practised as a psychoanalyst. She lives in Paris.

Penny Hueston (Translator)

Penny Hueston’s translations from French include novels by Emmanuelle Salasc, Patrick Modiano, Sarah Cohen-Scali and Raphael Jerusalmy. She has translated eight books by Marie Darrieussecq and has been shortlisted for the JQ-Wingate Prize, the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, twice for the Scott Moncrief Prize, and twice for the New South Wales Premier’s Translation Prize. She was the winner of the 2020 Medal for Excellence in Translation.

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