‘A Hymn to Life’ by Gisèle Pelicot

My Review (5 stars out of 5)

(Audiobook)

Called into the police station one day, Gisèle Pelicot discovered that her husband of fifty years had been caught by a supermarket guard filming up women’s skirts. But on his computer the police also found videos showing that for years he had been drugging and raping his wife, along with dozens of other men.

Like most people, I watched the media frenzy surrounding this case at the time and how Gisèle Pelicot waived her right to anonymity. The trial received top billing on every news service around the world, but this book tells the real story of Madame Pelicot’s life leading up to the court case. Noticing lapses of memory and apparent blackouts over a period of a few years, Gisèle had suspected the onset of dementia, or something worse, but the real horror was learning of the abuse enacted on her by her husband and fifty other men.  

The book tells of Gisèle’s troubling childhood, how she met her husband and looked forward to a better life, and how she had always viewed him as a gentle and thoughtful man, never suspecting the years of abuse that would come later.

A Hymn to Life is not an easy book by any means, but it is a book of hope and fearless courage (despite Madame Pelicot’s rejection of such a notion) and demonstrates that love and hope will survive in even the worst circumstances.

The audiobook is beautifully read by Emma Thompson.

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