A searing and sympathetic portrait of a mother''s liberation, from the acclaimed author of international bestsellers The End of Eddy and History of Violence.

Longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Barrios Book in Translation Prize, A Woman''s Battles and Transformations is Édouard Louis'' intimate portrayal of his mother''s escape from an oppressive marriage. Late one night, Louis received a call from his forty-five-year-old mother: "I did it. I left your father." In that moment, she was finally free.

This sharp, concise work reckons with the cruel systems that govern our lives—and the possibility of breaking free. A story of mothers and sons, history and heartbreak, politics and power, it is a necessary addition to the oeuvre of Édouard Louis, "one of France''s most widely read and internationally successful novelists" (The New York Times Magazine). A must-read for lovers of French literature, literary memoirs, and feminist nonfiction.

A searing and sympathetic portrait of a mother''s liberation, from the acclaimed author of international bestsellers The End of Eddy and History of Violence.

Longlisted for the National Book Critics Circle (NBCC) Barrios Book in Translation Prize, A Woman''s Battles and Transformations is Édouard Louis'' intimate portrayal of his mother''s escape from an oppressive marriage. Late one night, Louis received a call from his forty-five-year-old mother: "I did it. I left your father." In that moment, she was finally free.

This sharp, concise work reckons with the cruel systems that govern our lives—and the possibility of breaking free. A story of mothers and sons, history and heartbreak, politics and power, it is a necessary addition to the oeuvre of Édouard Louis, "one of France''s most widely read and internationally successful novelists" (The New York Times Magazine). A must-read for lovers of French literature, literary memoirs, and feminist nonfiction.