15 Aug 2026
issue 15 August 2026
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Two girls in Basque south-west France in the 1980s have been best friends since early childhood. Rose is the good one, studious and kind, with a sweetheart she plans to marry. Solange is the wild child: rebellious, dishonest and pregnant at 15. How to Make a Woman might sound like a Gallic take on Elena Ferrante territory, but it’s much more than that. Visceral and cerebral, with echoes of Simone de Beauvoir, it describes what it means to live in a world apparently created by and for men.
The novel unfolds as a triptych: Part One ‘According to Rose’; Part Two ‘As told by Solange’; and, finally, ‘Together’. Typically, while Rose goes on a school trip to Madrid, Solange survives a horrific birth, described in unflinching detail. Rose gets a degree and a job and dreams of married life. Solange wangles a scholarship to drama school in Bordeaux, leaving her unwanted baby to be cared for by her mother. Occasionally Rose slips away to have fun with Solange, swapping clothes and dancing crazily in Bordeaux nightclubs. Then Solange moves on, to Paris and London, chasing an acting career. There’s talk of TV slots and a movie audition, with hints of fame and wealth ahead in Hollywood. Part One ends with Rose’s marriage and the newly-weds safely together in bed.
