A Hymn to Life

Extraordinary … vibrates with necessity … A Hymn to Life is novelistic and resounds with grace. The language is precise and vivid; the story reverberates with echoes and patterns … an extraordinary achievement … There is beauty, love, hope. And there is rage, loss and fear of the void beneath her feet … Many could be enriched by this alertly human account of 70 years of life. Here is a perspective that is full, candid and instructive * Financial Times *
Extraordinarily courageous … what makes it so compelling is that it shows what happens when an atomic bomb of cruelty erupts within a seemingly normal family … Her modest humility makes her courage all the more impressive * The Times *
A unique memoir by a figure of astonishing power … alive with the kind of detail that wouldn’t look out of place in a good novel … Pelicot’s riveting account of her ordeal refuses to conform to any agenda but her own * Guardian *
Gisèle’s humility and courage elevates A Hymn to Life … What makes it so compelling is that it shows what happens when an atomic bomb of cruelty erupts within a seemingly normal family … The book’s translators, Natasha Lehrer and Ruth Diver, have done an excellent job of capturing Pelicot’s tone of determined control and occasional broken anguish – Hadley Freeman * Sunday Times Book of the Week *
Extraordinary … a powerful tale of a mighty woman * Daily Telegraph *
An emblem of resilience for women everywhere * Vogue *
The bravest woman in the world … A powerful and devastating memoir * Daily Mirror *
[A Hymn to Life] is gripping, it is heart-breaking, it is beautifully written – Lulu Garcia-Navarro * New York Times *
Stunning, admirable * Elle *
A Hymn to Life is a reminder of organised narrative’s simple power … Replete with details of modest domesticity in modern France, A Hymn to Life is also a rousing feminist manifesto … It seeks a proper transfer of shame from sex-crime victims to their perpetrators, and the perpetrators’ enablers * New York Times Book Review *

Gis le Pelicot is an international symbol of courage in the fight against sexual violence. Her case sparked a global debate on women’s rights and changed the legal definition of rape in France.

In 2024 she was named the most noteworthy person in France, and in 2025 she was selected by TIME as a Woman of the Year and one of the world’s most influential people. She received Woman of the Year accolades from the BBC, Independent, Financial Times, and more, and is the subject of a forthcoming HBO documentary.

Gis le has been awarded the Legion d’honneur, France’s highest civic honour. Her international honours include the Roosevelt Four Freedoms Award, Spain’s Order of Civil Merit, Britain’s Woman of Courage Award, Denmark’s Freedom Prize, and the Equality Now Trailblazer Award.

A Hymn to Life has been translated into 43 languages. On publication, it was an instant Sunday Times and New York Times bestseller. It was a finalist for the Kirkus Prize for Nonfiction and won the Prix Babelio for Non-fiction.

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