Édouard Louis is one of the most important literary voices of his generation' Guardian

One day, Édouard Louis finds a photograph of his mother from twenty years ago: a happy young woman, full of hopes and dreams. But growing up, Édouard only knew his mother's sadness - what happened in those years since the photo was taken? Then, at the age of forty-five, Édouard's mother frees herself from this life of oppression, to start a new one in Paris.

A Woman's Battles and Transformations reckons with the cruel systems that govern our lives - and with the possibility of escape. It is a tender portrait of a mother, and an honouring of her self-discovery as she chooses to live on her own terms.


'Tash Aw's sensitive translation captures the vividness of Louis's voice... Movingly, the book demonstrates the pain that moving from one social class to another entails' Times Literary Supplement

'A tenderness of observation' New York Times

'Incandescent...Louis's most hopeful book to date' Los Angeles Times

Translated from the French by Tash Aw

Poetic, tender, joyous. * Guardian *
Heartbreaking... You suspect this uniquely troubling writer is far from done yet. * Observer *
Louis' project, at once aesthetic and political, is..."to create a new language for the left", capable of articulating contemporary working-class experience. * New Statesman *
Tash Aw's sensitive translation captures the vividness of Louis's voice... Movingly, the book demonstrates the pain that moving from one social class to another entails. * Times Literary Supplement *
A tenderness of observation... translated into English with unobtrusive flair by Tash Aw. * New York Times *
The key to Louis's literary appeal is that he engages with complex themes while keeping things relatively simple. His elegant concision [...] ensures that candour never lapses into self-indulgence. * The Spectator *
Penetrating . . .Louis delivers an incisive portrait of the ways oppression and social forces brought chaos to their lives, and how they found freedom through compassion. * Publishers Weekly *
Louis's intimate narrative creates a pathway to understanding the complex, symbiotic nature between systems of power...Louis is in service to those overlooked by the privileged and an excellent role model for how men can become better allies to women. * The Brooklyn Rail *
In his incandescent autofiction, Édouard Louis has remade his painful youth as literature...Louis' most hopeful book to date. * Los Angeles Times *

Édouard Louis (Author)
Édouard Louis is the author of The End of Eddy, History of Violence, Who Killed My Father, A Woman's Battles and Transformations, Change, Monique Escapes and Collapse, and the editor of a book on the social scientist Pierre Bourdieu. His work has been translated into more than thirty languages, making him one of the most celebrated writers of his generation worldwide.

Tash Aw (Translator)
Tash Aw was born in Taiwan and is the author of five novels, three of which have been longlisted for the Booker Prize including his most recent novel, The South. His work has won the Whitbread First Novel Award, a Commonwealth Writers’ Prize and an O. Henry Award, and has been translated into over twenty languages. His translation of Édouard Louis' A Woman's Battles and Transformations was shortlisted for the TA First Translation Prize.