The ordeals of Gisèle Pelicot and her family in 2024 can’t have escaped your notice! Having discovered that her husband had been drugging her raping her while unconscious, and then letting other men rape her and filming it for ages, she bravely stood up in court in public to take him and the other perpetrators, over 50 of them, down Gisèle Pelicot became a heroine in France and beyond. Her daughter Caroline was also photographed, and still can’t be sure she wasn’t raped too, and Dominique Pelicot was discovered to have a long history of sexual abuse and more. Caroline went on to found a charity devoted to raise awareness of ‘chemical submission’ which goes from the horrors of date-rape through the prolonged ordeal that her mother suffered. Both have written books about their experiences. I must admit that when Gisèle’s book, published earlier this year, came out of the hat from our August pitches, I wasn’t sure whether I could bear to read it, but I’m really glad I did.
A Hymn to Life by Gisele Pelicot, with Judith Perrignon
Translated by Natasha Lehrer and Ruth Diver
Gisèle and her husband were asked to attend the police station in Carpentras in the south of France, near where they lived in Mazan, a village between the town and Mount Ventoux in Provence. Dominque had admitted to his wife that he’d been caught doing something very stupid at the supermarket – upskirting with his phone. It was after they’d taken Dominique away to process the charge that Gisèle was taken to a separate room where she was presented with the bombshell, photographic proof gleaned from her husband’s devices that would alter their family’s life forever.
The book continues by telling Gisèle’s story from first meeting her to-be husband; by the time he was arrested, they’d been married for almost fifty years – and happily – so she thought. Despite knowing some of Dominique’s upbringing with an abusive father, his incapacity at holding down a job and the family finances being quite precarious, Gisèle had loved him, and held the family together, carving out a career for herself alongside raising her family at the French nuclear agency. Perhaps naturally, there were many clues as to Dominique’s true nature, but those closest tend not see them.
It continues through the years of preparation for the trial, the lawyers, the photographs, the identification of the rapists, the videos, the mental anguish to Gisèle, and Caroline in particular. The decision to hold the trial in public was a last minute decision for them, a very brave one, but an heroic act that needed to be done. Throughout it all Gisèle was stoic, Caroline found it more difficult to keep her emotions in check, and the mother-daughter relationship has been strained. We were so pleased however, that Gisèle found a new partner to care for her later in the proceedings – taking things carefully, step by small step – he sounds a good man.
As a book group though, we found her account raised as many questions as it answered. We were totally shocked and revulsed by the accused mens’ behaviour – not all of them were strangers, which made it worse in a way. We praised her courage, her stoic-ness. We found it hard, but understood how, she still ‘cared’ for Dominique in a fashion – sending in warm clothes to prison, for instance, but they were happily married in her eyes for so long. She had started divorce proceedings straight away, but memories of all those happier times were hard to completely banish. We wanted to know more about Dominique’s personal history, which is not laid out in detail. This book concentrates fully on Gisèle’s experience, although the effects on Caroline and the rest of their family are considered. Her relationship with her daughter suffered, especially after she moved in with her youngest son at first when Caroline had expected her to come to them, and knowing that Caroline had also written a book, we wanted to read that too (see below, and one of the group bought a copy and we’re passing it around).
What was a shame, was that the male members of our book group were both on holiday this month, so we couldn’t get a male perspective on the book. One of the things that Gisèle had said was that she hoped that men would read it too. I would really recommend this as a non-fiction book group read. It is harrowing, but it is rewarding, and importantly, an easy read too. The author is ultimately full of positivity and her story has done much to bring the discussion on sexual violence to the fore. Thank you Gisèle.
Source: Own copy. Bodley Head hardback, 246 pages. BUY at Amazon UK or Waterstones via my affiliate links.
I’ll Never Call Him Dad Again by Caroline Darian
Translated by Stephen Brown
Caroline, having disowned her family name, wrote her books under a pseudonym combining the forenames of her two brothers David and Florian. You’ll note I said ‘books’. The original one, Et j’ai cessé de t’appeler Papa, was published in France in 2022, before the trial had taken place. After the trial, she wrote a follow-up, Pour que l’on se souvienne, Don’t Put Me Under, published in 2025, the latter being added to the first in subsequent editions.
Caroline tells a wider story in her pair of books than her mother, exploring how it affected her brothers, their partners and children in more detail. She also details the work she has done in setting up the organisation Don’t Put Me Under which seeks to raise the issue of sexual violence by chemical submission.
She also explores Dominique’s history in depth, for it transpires he was a serial offender even before he started on Gisèle. This makes the photos he’d taken of her, dressed in pants not her own, obviously unconscious, all the worse – and it can’t be proved that she hadn’t been violated further physically. The abuse of Gisèle wasn’t limited to the house in Mazan either, photos later turn up of Gisèle unconscious in Caroline and Pierre’s holiday home on the Île de Ré, Caroline recognised the duvet cover! That house is where Gisèle had moved to after staying with Florian.
Gisèle and Caroline’s falling out happens during the trial when, under pressure from the defence, Gisèle stays silent when asked if she believed that Dominique had drugged and sexually abused her daughter. Gisèle believed that the case was about her, even though her family are all victims. Caroline feels compelled to leave the court, and later when Dominique was being questioned about whether he abused her, she was unable to restrain herself, and screamed at him that he was lying.
She finishes the updated edition of the book with a call to arms against those who perpetrate sexual violence, to call them out, to support the victims properly. Caroline’s book, although covering the same events as Gisèle’s, is quite different in her emotional response to the events, needing a couple of spells in hospital, and having not a single shred of feeling for her father from the moment she heard what had happened onwards. It certainly answered many of the questions that Gisèle’s book raised, and I’m glad I read it.
Source: Borrowed copy. Leap/Bonnier paperback original 2025, 331 pages. BUY at Amazon UK or Waterstones via my affiliate links.
These two were nos #17 and #22 of my Twenty Books of Summer, and also Women in Translation month.
