La Nuit au coeur

“Of those three women, I had to start with the first, the one who was barely twenty-five when she ran away, and the only one still alive today.

That woman is me.”

When in 2021 Nathacha Appanah learned of the death of Chahinez Daoud, burned alive by her husband in broad daylight near Bordeaux, she had no other choice than to confront her own story of violence and that of her cousin Emma, killed by her husband in Mauritius in 2000. She recounts her own terrible experience at the hands of a man, then endeavours to piece together the spiral in which Chahinez and Emma were caught. She seeks the deeper truth of these women, beyond time and secrets, through the words of the living and the whispers of the dead.

On the edge between strength and humility, Nathacha Appanah takes a hard look at the unbearable enigma of domestic violence, when darkness overshadows love.  

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Prix Femina 2025