Gisele Pelicot’s memoir details her trauma after mass rapes by her husband and dozens of men, her public trial, and her fight for justice.
PARIS: Gisele Pelicot (pic), the French woman who survived mass rapes organised by her husband, will reveal intimate details in her upcoming memoir. Extracts published in Le Monde detail her shock and the horror of discovering photographs of the assaults.
Her book, titled “A Hymn to Life”, will be published worldwide in 22 languages. In it, she recounts her 50-year marriage to Dominique Pelicot, whom she initially considered “a great guy”.
She describes examining photos of herself being raped while sedated. “I didn’t recognise the men. Or this woman. Her cheek was so flabby. Her mouth so limp. She was like a rag doll,” she writes.
Ahead of her 2024 trial in Avignon, she refused a closed-door hearing. She wanted the world to know what she had endured.
“When I think back to the moment I made my decision, I realise that if I had been 20 years younger, I might not have dared to refuse a closed session,” she wrote. “I would have been afraid of the stares, those damned stares that a woman of my generation has always had to deal with.”
The trial lasted nearly four months and resulted in 51 convictions, including her husband’s. Her memoir also chronicles her anxiety before facing the accused.
“The closer it got, the more I imagined myself becoming a hostage to their stares, their lies, their cowardice, and their contempt,” she wrote. “Wasn’t I protecting them by closing the door?”
British actress Emma Thompson will narrate the English audiobook. Thompson called the story “absolutely extraordinary” and “difficult to read out loud” in an Instagram post.
She said the memoir “inspires courage and compassion but also crucially demands change”. Pelicot has become an international icon, inspiring changes to French rape laws.
The case has caused a rift with her daughter, Caroline Darian, who suspects her father also abused her. Darian told The Daily Telegraph she no longer speaks to her mother.
