Our Life In The Forest

(Paperback)

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Description

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

Reviews

The reader will be captivated by Darrieussecqs hypnotic style. * Le Monde *
The title could be Our Life in the Future, but reducing this book to a dystopian tale is doing it a disserviceA journal from beyond the grave, as time runs outAnd a profound novel about loneliness. * Libration *
In this exceptional novel, the author of Pig Tales describes a world in the future where surveillance is omnipresent and clones ruleAn unusual, strange book. * LObservateur *
A disturbing dystopian tale in which tragedy and irony work togetherIngeniously and brilliantly, Marie Darrieussecqs 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. * Tlrama *
In this brilliantly executed dystopia, Marie Darrieussecq writes with rare skill about the concerns of our timethe 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 inventiveWith 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 *
Once again, Darrieusecq gives us a passionate investigation into the deficiencies, transformations and lapses in our humanityA little like Ray Bradbury in Fahrenheit 451, she shows how literature is our best means to disrupt functionality. * Focus Vif *
Darrieussecqs writing brings the story to life vividly in your mind. * Good Reading *
Our Life in the Forestis a psychologically astute novel, with a few well-executed twists that will no doubt please fans of the genre. * Saturday Paper *
Darrieussecq writes with a kind of truncated brevity that is stark, muscular and direct. The effect is immediately arresting[Our Life in the Forest] is Atwoodesque, melding some of the brutal and unpleasant aspects of our current moment into a plausible but avoidable future. * Overland *
Speaks to the heart of what it is to be human. * Otago Daily Times *
Darrieussecqs prose style is succinct and muscular, characterised by short sentences and a strong sense of the narrators bleakly comic take on life. * ArtsHub *

Author Bio

Marie Darrieussecq is a French writer born in Bayonne in 1969. Her first novel, Pig Tales, was published in 1996 and subsequently translated into thirty-five languages. She has written some fifteen books for adults, including novels, short fiction, a play, and nonfiction works. In 2013 she was awarded both the Prix Mdicis and the Prix des Prix for her novel Men. Being Here, her biography of Paula Modersohn-Becker, was released in 2016. She is a regular contributor to contemporary art magazines in France and Britain and also writes for Libration and Charlie Hebdo. She lives in Paris.