A French woman who became an international symbol of resistance against sexual violence is set to release an intimate memoir detailing her life with the man who drugged and orchestrated her rape by dozens of strangers over nearly a decade.
Gisele Pelicot (73) will publish “A Hymn to Life” on 17 February in 22 languages, co-written with French author Judith Perrignon. The book traces her 50-year relationship with Dominique Pelicot, who was sentenced to 20 years in prison in 2024 for drugging his wife and recruiting men online to rape her whilst she was unconscious.
In extracts published by French newspaper Le Monde on Tuesday, Pelicot describes the life-shattering moment she learned the truth about her husband. Police called her in for questioning and showed her photographs of herself being raped whilst 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 wrote in the French-language version.
The memoir challenges simple narratives of abuse, with Pelicot revealing that her relationship was not entirely nightmarish. “Like every couple, we had difficult moments, but we loved each other, I’m sure of that, and we had three children,” she told French magazine Telerama in an interview published on Wednesday.
She described Dominique as someone she considered a “great guy” for most of their relationship, making the revelation of his crimes all the more devastating.
Public trial decision
Pelicot’s decision to waive her right to anonymity and insist on a public trial in Avignon transformed her into a global figure. The nearly four-month trial in 2024 resulted in convictions for 51 men, including her ex-husband.
“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 exposed how Dominique Pelicot meticulously documented the abuse in files on his computer, recruiting strangers through online forums to assault his wife whilst she was sedated. The case sparked international outrage and prompted discussions about reforming French rape laws.
Cultural impact
With her brown bobbed haircut and round sunglasses, Pelicot has inspired a broader public reckoning with the problem of drug-facilitated sexual assault. Veteran British actor Emma Thompson, who will narrate the audiobook in English, described the story as “absolutely extraordinary” in a post on Instagram.
Thompson said the memoir was “difficult to read out loud” but “inspires courage and compassion but also crucially demands change”.
In its early review, Le Monde praised the book, stating: “Gisele Pelicot tells her story without bravado or self-pity.”
Pelicot told Telerama she wrote the memoir to help others. “I said to myself that this work could be useful, that my story could give hope to other people, victims in particular, to traumatised women.”
New life, ongoing investigations
The survivor has rebuilt her life on the French Atlantic island of Ile de Re, where she described herself as a “happy woman” who has found love in a new relationship.
Meanwhile, Dominique Pelicot faces additional charges. Investigators have charged him with the rape and murder of a woman in Paris in 1991 and a rape in a suburb of the capital in 1999, after reopening two cold cases.
He has also been accused of rape by his daughter, Caroline Darian, after investigators found sexualised photographs of her on his computer. Dominique Pelicot denies this accusation.
Darian had publicly accused her mother of abandoning her after the trial, but the two women have “started talking again”, according to a recent interview.
The memoir’s publication in 22 languages simultaneously represents one of the largest international releases for a French survivor’s account of sexual violence.
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