About the book: A Hymn to Life (2026) is the extraordinarily powerful memoir by a heroine of our times, whose story inspires change, compassion and courage.
One November day, Gisèle Pelicot was called to a local police station and life as she knew it ended. Her husband of fifty years had been caught by a supermarket guard filming up women’s skirts. But on his computer was shattering evidence: for nearly a decade, he had been secretly drugging and raping her and inviting dozens of strangers into their home to abuse her.
Four years later, he and fifty other men were put on trial and Gisèle’s courage in waiving her right to anonymity made global headlines.
‘Shame must change sides,’ she declared, giving voice and hope to millions. Her words became a rallying cry and her decision marked a turning point in public feeling about sexual violence.
For the first time, and with unwavering honesty and grace, she describes a difficult childhood, first love, her career and motherhood. It is a life in determined search of happiness, both before and after her devastating discovery. She is an ordinary person who faces extraordinary catastrophe, whose example changes the world.
A Hymn to Life: Shame Has To Change Sides is an unforgettable testament and a promise. Its message is one of defiance and renewal – that victims have no reason to feel ashamed; that even after unimaginable betrayal we can go on; that the colour can come back to life. Ultimately, Gisèle Pelicot emerges with a renewed passion and reverence for living, and for love.
The book, Et la joie de vivre, written with journalist and novelist Judith Perrignon, will be published by Flammarion in a worldwide release in 22 languages on 17 February 2026.
The English translation has the title A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides and is translated by Natasha Lehrer and Ruth Diver.
A Hymn to Life is an instant No 1 Sunday Times bestseller and a Best Book of 2026 for The Observer, Telegraph, Guardian, Financial Times, New York Times, Daily Mirror, Irish Times, GQ Magazine, Lit Hub, BBC and more!
About the author: Gisèle Pelicot was named as the most noteworthy person of 2024 in an opinion poll in France, eclipsing world leaders, and was honoured by Time. To mark International Women’s Day, the Independent named her the most influential woman of 2025. Her case contributed to the national debate on sexual violence in France, which led to a change in the legal definition of rape.
On 14 July 2025, Gisèle Pelicot has been awarded the Légion d’honneur, France’s highest civic honour.
About the translators: Natasha Lehrer is a writer, editor, and translator from French to English. She was born in London and studied at Oxford University and the Université de Paris VIII. Her translations have received multiple awards, and been longlisted and shortlisted for several prizes. Her recent translations include The White Dress by Nathalie Léger (Les Fugitives / Dorothy), Chinese Spies by Roger Faligot (Hurst), and Memories of Low Tide by Chantal Thomas (Pushkin Press). In 2017, she was awarded the Scott Moncrieff Prize for her co-translation (with Cécile Menon) of Nathalie Léger’s Suite for Barbara Loden. Her translations have appeared in Granta, 3AM Magazine, and The Paris Review, while her journalism regularly features in The Guardian, The Times Literary Supplement, Haaretz, and The Nation. She lives in Paris with her husband and three children.
Ruth Diver is an award-winning literary translator and the former head of comparative literature at the University of Auckland, where she also taught French and Russian. She is the author of Enfant Russes, Écrivains Français, and has published research on translingual authors in Roman 20-50, Europe and Revue des lettres modernes. She won the Asymptote Close Approximations Fiction Prize in 2016 for her translation of Maraudes by Sophie Pujas and has since published over a dozen full-length translations, including The Little Girl on the Ice Floe by Adélaïde Bon (shortlisted for the UK Translators Association Debut Translation Prize) and A History of the Big House by Charif Majdalani (shortlisted for the French-American Translation Prize). Extracts from her translations have appeared in Granta, Tripwire and Guernica. She lives in Aotearoa, New Zealand.
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