MARIE DARRIEUSSECQ

MARIE DARRIEUSSECQ
©Photo: Bamberger / P.O.L.
BIOGRAPHY
Marie Darrieussecq was born in 1969 in the Basque country, in France. She graduated from
the Ecole Normale Supérieure de Paris and wrote her Ph.D. thesis on auto-fiction. At the same
time, she wrote her first novel Truismes in six weeks (1996, translated in 1997 under the title:
Pig Tales) which met with immediate worldwide success. She has since published 15 more
books with Editions P.O.L, six of which have been translated into English. Today,
Darrieussecq is a notable figure among the distinguished younger generation of French
writers. Her latest book, Clèves, was published in August 2011 by P.O.L.
BIBLIOGRAPHY
Available in English
“Juerguen the Perfect Son-in-Law”, Best European Fiction 2012, by Aleksandar Hemon,
Dalkey Archive Press, 2011.
Tom Is Dead, The Text Pub. Co., 2009.
Whiter, [2003] Faber & Faber, 2006.
Brief Stay with the Living, [2001] Faber & Faber, 2004.
Breathing Underwater, [1999] Faber & Faber, 2002.
Undercurrents, The New Press, 2001.
My Phantom Husband, [1998] Faber & Faber, 2001.
Pig Tales. A Novel of Lust and Transformation, [1996] The New Press, 1997.
Selected works in French
Clèves, P.O.L., 2011 (ISBN 978-2-8180-1397-7)
Rapport de police. Accusations de plagiat et autres modes de surveillance de la fiction,
P.O.L., 2010. (ISBN 9782846823319)
Péronille la chevalière, Albin Michel Jeunesse, 2008 (ISBN 9782226189400)
Tom est mort, P.O.L., 2007 (ISBN 9782846822091)
Mrs Ombrella et les musées du désert, éd. Scali, 2007 (ISBN 9782350121253)
Le Pays, P.O.L., 2005 (ISBN 9782846820851)
Claire dans la forêt suivi de Penthésilée, premier combat, Editions des Femmes, 2004
(ISBN 9782721004918).
Le Bébé, P.O.L., 2002 (ISBN 2867448743)
White, P.O.L., 2002 (ISBN 2867449626)
Bref séjour chez les vivants, P.O.L, 2001 (ISBN 2867448441)
Précisions sur les vagues, P.O.L., 1999 (ISBN 9782846822633)
Le Mal de mer, P.O.L., 1999. (ISBN 2070416232)
Naissance des fantômes, P.O.L., 1998. (ISBN 2867446139)
Truismes, P.O.L, 1996. (ISBN 2867445299)
ABOUT HER BOOKS
Clèves, by P.O.L.
« Clèves raconte l’éveil à la vie amoureuse et sexuelle d’une petite fille, en province, il y a une trentaine d’années environ... Les trois parties du livre respectivement intitulées « Les
avoir » (les règles), « Le faire » (l’amour), « Le refaire » (l’amour, encore, bien sûr : une seule
fois ne suffit jamais, surtout en l’occurrence), donnent bien la temporalité et la dramaturgie de ce huitième roman de Marie Darrieussecq… » >> Read more
An extract of Clèves in French and in English translation are published in the 9th issue of
Fiction France, available online at the Institut Français.
Reviews for Pig Tales
"(O)ne of the most weirdly inventive novels of recent years." - James Eve, The Times
"Marie Darrieussecq's recent novel Truismes, written in the guise of a journal intime,
vacillates between suspenseful hyperrealism and mysterious science fiction. (...) Satisfaction
from Truismes comes to those who wait. The narrative path leads the reader from a narrow,
single, biased reading toward a more vast and expansive comprehension of Darrieussecq's
humorous trickery." - Kathleen A. Langan, World Literature Today
"Darrieussecq, a first-time novelist at 27, approaches fiction with all the nuance of a
Trotskyist pamphleteer, favoring a portentous matter-of-factness that insists on being taken
seriously. Only the French can explain why they have chosen to do so." - Tobin Harshaw, The
New York Times Book Review
"In Darrieussecq's tragicomic exploration of humanity's animal nature, the chatty, mock-naive
style of the unsophisticated narrator pushes every pig pun to its limits, and her deadpan
comments on her changing appearance parody those of an adolescent contemplating the onset
of puberty. Pig Tales is a striking modern fable by a young writer who has made a dramatic
entry onto the literary scene." - Susan Ireland, Review of Contemporary Fiction