“A first novel unrestrained, feminine, poisonous, funny, tender and poignant.” —Nicolas Rey, on Enfin la vérité sur les contes de fées

Scathingly funny and painstakingly realistic, The Striptease of the Invisible Woman brilliantly exposes the cruel absurdities of our image-conscious culture and explores what it means to be fat in an all-too-skinny world.

Melanie is 15, short, pudgy, and already has a strong case of low self-esteem. Despite the resistance of her oblivious mother, she makes her first (failed) attempts at achieving a willowy waist and dressing in Abercrombie outfits, with the help of her best friend, the slender and ebullient Fanny. Ten years later, she has lost all hope she’ll ever fit into anything less than a double-digit size, but the unwavering Fanny finds the solution: Internet dating for “curvy” women. Although she enjoys the sudden attention, she soon realizes that virtual men act just the same when confronted with her Rubensesque body . . .

At 35, she sees a woman transformed from female Frankenstein to Stepford wife on a reality TV show, and, struck to the core, she becomes a contestant. Gastric balloon, surgery, boot-camp workouts, and a drastic diet later, she finally becomes the skinny woman who can get any man she wants. With her life completely upended, a lust for Ken-doll men, and an obsession with calorie counting, she engages in her final battle against her body, which this time she cannot win.