Marie Darrieussecq’s new novel follows two childhood friends who grow up in the same French village but choose very different lives. Rose wants to pursue psychology and finds a job working with struggling adolescents in Paris while maintaining a relationship with ‘the boyfriend she’s had since primary school’. She is often dissatisfied but can’t imagine life without him. The more adventurous Solange tries to make it as an actress and gets involved with the gay community in Bordeaux, as well as the clubbing scene of 1990s Paris (she sleeps with Prince). She also works at the Ritzy in London and, later, in Hollywood, all while dating a series of unstable artistic men. 

This may seem like a familiar story, the kind of double bildungsroman told by Elena Ferrante in her Neapolitan Quartet. But Darrieussecq adds some fascinating twists. First, she herself has told parts of this story before in her previous novels, two of which are about Solange and one about Rose.