Girl

By Camille Laurens, Adriana Hunter (translator),

Book cover of Girl

Book description

From the acclaimed author of Little Dancer Aged Fourteen, a deeply personal and insightful account of being a girl, woman, and mother in a world that sees the feminine as less than.

Born in 1959 to a middle-class family, Laurence Barraqué grows up with her sister in the northern city…


Shepherd is reader supported. When you buy books, we may earn an affiliate commission.

Why read it?

1 author picked Girl as one of their favorite books. Why do they recommend it?

Even though I never felt badly treated for growing up as a girl in a patriarchal world as Camille Laurens did, I loved her book. The first part, which starts with the sentence “It’s a girl,” recounts her childhood in a provincial French town in the sixties, where sexism still reigns. The distressing second part describes the loss of her son at birth. The third part is about her relationship with her daughter — born after the lost son — who, in spite of her mother's best efforts, grew up as a tomboy. The novel cleverly ends when the daughter,…

From Catherine's list on by French women.

Want books like Girl?

Our community of 11,000+ authors has personally recommended 100 books like Girl.

Browse books like Girl

5 book lists we think you will like!

Interested in France, sexism, and Paris?

France 936 books
Sexism 69 books
Paris 387 books