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Born of No Woman

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Born of No Woman

By: Franck Bouysse, Lara Vergnaud - translator
Narrated by: Charles Armstrong, Helen Duff
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Nineteenth-century rural France.

Before he is called to bless the body of a woman at the nearby asylum, Father Gabriel receives a strange, troubling confession: hidden under the woman's dress he will find the notebooks in which she confided the abuses she suffered and the twisted motivations behind them.

And so Rose's terrible story comes to light: sold as a teenage girl to a rich man, hidden away in an old manor house deep in the woods and caught in a perverse web, manipulated by those society considers her betters. A girl whose only escape is to capture her life - in all its devastation and hope - in the pages of her diary.

The English-language debut of critically acclaimed author Franck Bouysse, this exquisitely written novel is both a keen social commentary and a chilling horror story. Genre Fiction Historical Literary Fiction Mystery Women's Fiction Fiction Suspense
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Critic reviews

Here, everything is epiphanic, essential, surprising, whether it be the revelation of a secret or the painting of a detail...At once classic and phantasmagoric, Born of No Woman proves that fiction...can still amaze
A vivid, mesmerizing tale
Rare are those who, like Franck Bouysse, manage to write the indescribable, to touch the unspeakable, with so much subtlety and intensity. In spite of the severity and darkness of certain pages, Born of No Woman is a deeply moving and luminous book
Born of No Woman is a dazzling, heart-wrenching tale of cruelty and mercy, secrets and horrors. The novel is deeply immersive, gothic, and taut with dread; the prose sings and the characters burn in the heart. Easily my favourite book of the year. Not to be missed
One of the most disturbing yet lyrically exquisite novels I've read in a long time . . . Brave, sometimes horrific, Born of No Woman is one of the most compelling novels I have read in many years. Infused with lurid elements of the most gothic fairy tales, it explores the darkest realms of human sexuality
A haunting, suspenseful gothic tale set in nineteenth-century France that weaves many layers, from the plight of women in that era to class distinctions that lead to oppression of the vulnerable . . . Ultimately, this is a book of hope and the resilience of the human spirit to overcome tragedy. The narrative is elegant, and the viewpoint of every character is compelling and credible. Highly recommended!
Born of No Woman is beautifully and quietly haunting. Rose's triumph over human weakness, cruelty, and her own powerlessness as a woman without means or status deeply resonates, and the strength of her dignity and resilience lingers long after the pages are turned
Undoubtedly effective . . . There are plenty of narrative surprises as Rose's father seeks to recover her, and she falls in love with the mysterious Edmond
This book feels like the Marquis de Sade's Justine if Justine had written it . . . show[ing] the author's keen observational skills when it comes to class and gender
All stars
Most relevant
Found the violence difficult but persevered thinking there would be some deep road to redemption or comment on the human condition as the book progressed- there wasn't!! Plot twists didn't really add much to a deeper narrative- just felt a bit irrelevant and agree after such a dark long build up the ending felt really inadequate and rushed.

Disa

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