The Medusa Child

Author: Sylvie Germain

Translator: Liz Nash   Cover illustration: Lise Weisgerber  

Sylvie Germain's The Medusa Child beautifully translated from the French by Liz Nash, tells a heartbreaking and violent story about sin and redemption in fantastical language; a myth from la France profonde.

Michelle Roberts in Books of the Year in The Independent on Sunday

Germain's language is redolent with decay, rich with religious torment and ecstasy, and filled with the decadence so loved by this publisher.

Time Out

The Medusa Child is her most accessible novel, and my favourite. A coherent pattern of metaphor depicts an enchanted country childhood. Lucie explores the marshes around her home and studies the stars. But when she is given a room of her own, an ogre starts to pay her nocturnal visits. Helpless and alone, Lucie decides to fight back by turning herself into a monster. This is a superb and compassionate study of damage and resistance.

Michele Roberts in Mslexia

The ascetic sex scenes between the eight year old and the 'blond ogre', and omnipresent sense of sin and salvation , show what a good writer Germain can be.

Carole Morin in The New Statesman

Anyone who shares my great sadness that there are no more Angela Carter books to read should try one of Sylvie Germain's novels.

Neil Astley in The Bookseller