MEDUSA

ISABELLE SORENte

(JC Lattès, 405 pages, 2024)

***longlisted for the 2024 prix Renaudot and Prix fnac ***

Marianne is just twenty years old when she dies a violent death in her Parisian dorm room.  Her loved ones each in their own ways struggle to cope with the tragedy, especially Liam, her young brother. She was a daring and protective sister and together they roamed the wild trails overlooking their Mediterranean hometown. Now, he finds himself alone, and the brutality of this unbearable loss throws him on a quest: imagining that there lies a secret that she would have left for him, he wants to know what his sister's last thought was before dying––and maybe only then, will he be able to gather the pieces of his shattered universe.

When he asks Beatrix, Marianne’s best friend, for help, he discovers another side of Marianne. That of a young woman who identified more with monsters than princesses.

A captivating novel steeped in mythology, Medusa reconstitutes the life of Marianne, weaving in a complex and original narrative structure a variety of themes : mourning, cultural transmission and motherhood, forgiveness and friendship. Reminding us that girls and women carry a heavier weight on their shoulders than just their individuality, Sorente explores the genealogy of women and the persistence of their suffering from generation to generation. Medusa, her latest novel, establishes Sorente as a significant author in French literature.

Isabelle Sorente has published several acclaimed novels, including L'Instruction (J.C. Lattès, 2023), La femme et l'oiseau (J.C. Lattès, 2021) and Le complexe de la sorcière (J.C. Lattès, 2020).