Our Life in the Forest

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Pub Date Oct 25 2018 | Archive Date Sep 25 2018

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Description

Translated by Penny Hueston

In the near future, a woman is writing in the depths of a forest. She’s cold. Her body is falling apart, as is the world around her. She’s lost the use of one eye; she’s down to one kidney, one lung. Before, in the city, she was a psychotherapist, treating patients who had suffered trauma, in particular a man, “the clicker”. Every two weeks, she travelled out to the Rest Centre, to visit her “half”, Marie, her spitting image, who lay in an induced coma, her body parts available whenever the woman needed them.

As a form of resistance against the terror in the city, the woman flees, along with other fugitives and their halves. But life in the forest is disturbing too—the reanimated halves are behaving like uninhibited adolescents. And when she sees a shocking image of herself on video, are her worst fears confirmed?

Our Life in the Forest, written in her inimitable concise, vivid prose recalls Darrieussecq’s brilliant debut, Pig Tales. A dystopian tale in the vein of Never Let Me Go, this is a clever novel of chilling suspense that challenges our ideas about the future, about organ-trafficking, about identity, clones, and the place of the individual in a surveillance state

Translated by Penny Hueston

In the near future, a woman is writing in the depths of a forest. She’s cold. Her body is falling apart, as is the world around her. She’s lost the use of one eye;...


Advance Praise

‘The reader will be captivated by Darrieussecq’s hypnotic style.’—Le Monde

‘A profound novel about loneliness.’—Libération


‘An unusual, strange book.’—L’Observateur

‘A disturbing dystopian tale in which tragedy and irony work together…Ingeniously and brilliantly, Marie Darrieussecq’s sparkling tale adds to the classics of futuristic fiction. Even more profound than the social and political resonance of this novel is the theme of loneliness.'—Télérama
‘In this brilliantly executed dystopia, Marie Darrieussecq writes with rare skill about the concerns of our time—the senseless destruction of the planet and transhumanist madness. Outstanding.’—Le Matin Dimanche


‘Who would have thought Marie Darrieussecq would write a thriller? This brief, feminist and political novel is perhaps her most inventive…With wit and elegance, the author takes us into a narrative full of tension, and with the same humour as in Pig Tales. Once again, she creates an absurd world, and denounces the failings of our society.’—Les Inrockuptibles

‘A passionate investigation into the deficiencies, transformations and lapses in our humanity.'—Focus Vif

‘The reader will be captivated by Darrieussecq’s hypnotic style.’—Le Monde

‘A profound novel about loneliness.’—Libération


‘An unusual, strange book.’—L’Observateur

‘A disturbing dystopian tale in...

Available Editions

EDITION Paperback
ISBN 9781925603781
PRICE £10.99 (GBP)

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