Marie Darrieussecq
Transit Books
1 September 2026 (2017)
128
eBook - PDF
Literary Fiction
ARC via Edelweiss
In the near future, our woman in the forest is nearing the end. She’s down an eye and a kidney; she’s lost the use of one hand; she knows she won’t have time to reread what she writes here. Her other half, Marie (a.k.a. Sissy)—around whom our narrator has unwisely constructed her identity, and whom she sacrificed a great deal to set free—is an idiot: deeply incurious, barely ambulatory, and horny. It’s hardly Marie’s fault (she’s a clone). But our half was hoping for more.
In a torrential narrative, with asides for barking laughter, our woman in the forest casts her single roving eye across the opaque mechanisms of their shared past and the strange world that made them (one that is nevertheless familiar in its vices)—driven to understand and communicate, in writing, her conditional personhood. Our Life in the Forest is an unrelenting novel about complicity, love, and the failing body: an irreverent and deeply compelling addition to the female apocalyptic tradition.
Our Life in the Forest was a quick but engaging read. The twist in the story was fascinating and took me by surprise. It's a light read in terms of page count, but it touches on a number of deep and interesting themes and questions and presents a dystopian view of the future and the idea of prolongation of life. I liked the fact this was a dystopian tale without the big fantasy bells and whistles of most books in that genre. The story idea was an interesting one, and the world building was generally well handled within the confines of the small page count. But, I did find the characters a little lacking in depth. Even the narrator never became someone I cared deeply about. As such, I am giving this book 4 stars.
I received this book as a free eBook ARC via Edelweiss in exchange for an honest review.
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