Ladivine: A Novel

Translated by Jordan Stump.

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Clarisse is an orphan. Or so she tells her husband & daughter. But every month she makes a secret visit to her mother Ladivine - a poor black housekeeper. This 25-year deception takes its toll. Her husband leaves her, frustrated at the gulf of silence that has grown up between them. She finds solace in another man, but this peace comes at a terrible price. It will be left to her daughter - also called Ladivine, without knowing why - to work out who her mother was & what happened to her.

"Fair warning: Guilt, shame, grief, cruelty — the denser flavours of the human dynamic — make for intense reading. Not handled well, such heavyweight emotions easily turn to stone. But the sharp-edged writing in Marie NDiaye's second novel, Ladivine, warrants spending time with her bleak vision of reality. Committed readers may find unexpected rewards in the harrowing twists & turns this gloomy family drama takes." — Jean Zimmerman, NPR

Marie NDiaye published her first novel at the age of 17, won the Prix Femina for Rosie Carpe in 2001 & the Prix Goncourt for Three Strong Women in 2009. Her play Papa Doit Manger has been taken into the repertoire of the Comédie Française.  In 2013, she was shortlisted, for her entire body of work, for the Man Booker International Prize.