In a small French town, a young girl grows up under the hard blue gaze of a mother who will not hold her hand. Her only comfort lies in the warmth of an ill grandmother. Yet the world around her is full of curiosity. From the obsessive Madame Barbaroux and her endless spring cleaning, to the homeless Monsieur Dezaille and his beloved collection of saucepans, Leduc reveals the eccentricities of provincial life with unflinching candour and striking beauty.An extraordinary tale of a stifled childhood and an unrelenting love of life from the protégée of Simone de Beauvoir.

Violette Leduc was born in Arras, France, in 1907, the illegitimate daughter of a serving girl who would later blame Violette for her personal misfortunes. She was sent to boarding school, from which she was eventually expelled after her affairs with a female pupil and a tutor were discovered. Her 1964 memoir La Bâtarde, a frank depiction of lesbianism, poverty and loneliness, sold over 150,000 copies and nearly won the Prix Goncourt. Leduc died in 1972.