The Witch
A Novel
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The Witch
Narrated by:
Virginia Grainger
Pre-order for $21.73
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Narrated by:
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Virginia Grainger
About this listen
In a small, sleepy town, a mediocre witch, in a mediocre marriage, tries to pass on her gifts to her twin daughters, who, it becomes immediately apparent, have skills far beyond her own.
"The Witch is classic NDiaye. Taut, spellbinding and strange, it unfolds with the disturbed logic of a fever dream." —The New York Times
"The Witch is Marie NDiaye at her most dazzling. In this simple, startlingly powerful novel, NDiaye lays out her central themes: familial secrets, power, shame, and liberation. NDiaye is one of the greats—her novels are mesmerizing, wholly singular, completely unforgettable." —Katie Kitamura, author of Audition
Lucie comes from a long line of witches, with powers passed down from mother to daughter. Many of them have hidden or repressed their gifts to appease disgusted or fearful men. But against the wishes of her controlling husband, Lucie initiates her twins into their family’s peculiar womanhood when they reach the age of twelve. In a few short months, Maud and Lise are crying rich crimson tears, their powers quickly becoming more potent than their mother’s, opening them to liberation and euphoria beyond what Lucie and her foremothers ever considered.
Equal parts dreamlike and disquieting, The Witch tells a tale as old as time, with a dark twist: Without looking back, children fly the nest, laying bare the tenuous threads of family that have long threatened to snap. With simmering tension and increasing panic, NDiaye’s latest novel in English captures the terror and precarity of motherhood and marriage, and the uncertainty of slowly realizing that your progeny are more dangerous—to the world and to your heart—and freer than you ever could have dreamed.
Critic Reviews
"The Witch is Marie NDiaye at her most dazzling. In this simple, startlingly powerful novel, NDiaye lays outher central themes: familial secrets, power, shame, andliberation. NDiaye is one of the greats—her novels are mesmerizing, wholly singular, completely unforgettable."
—Katie Kitamura, author of Audition
"An exacting portrait of domestic entrapment and psychological turmoil. . . . The Witch is classic NDiaye. Taut, spellbinding and strange, it unfolds with the disturbed logic of a fever dream. . . . NDiaye, a specialist in characters in extremis, chronicles Lucie’s mounting panic with exacting precision, her sentences charting a welter of feeling."
—The New York Times
"This is NDiaye at her disquieting best."
—New York Magazine
"NDiaye's novels demand descriptions like disquieting, hypnotic, haunting. . . . Put simply, her novels are spellbinding. . . . The Witch is dreamlike, elliptical, unsettling and beautiful."
—The Financial Times
"A story of inheritance and liberation centered around a very NDiaye protagonist: someone holding it together in situations teetering on chaos."
—Lit Hub
"Short, sharp, and deceptively simple. . . . Unsettling and evocative, NDiaye’s short novel distills dreams and truths alike."
—Kirkus Reviews
"NDiaye's novel will keep readers engrossed with its supernaturalism mixed with suburban bourgeois banalities. Anyone interested in late 20th-century French culture and literature will find this book entertaining but also bittersweet."
—Library Journal
"A 144-page grenade of walloping emotions. . . . Totally bizarre yet captivating. . . . A bad marriage is no new fodder for fiction, but NDiaye’s extremely creative characters and absolutely outlandish twists take this well-traveled subject to a new level. Her dark humor is a constant, and she makes even the hardest moments of the story resonate with a deep understanding of human nature."
—BookPage (starred review)
—Katie Kitamura, author of Audition
"An exacting portrait of domestic entrapment and psychological turmoil. . . . The Witch is classic NDiaye. Taut, spellbinding and strange, it unfolds with the disturbed logic of a fever dream. . . . NDiaye, a specialist in characters in extremis, chronicles Lucie’s mounting panic with exacting precision, her sentences charting a welter of feeling."
—The New York Times
"This is NDiaye at her disquieting best."
—New York Magazine
"NDiaye's novels demand descriptions like disquieting, hypnotic, haunting. . . . Put simply, her novels are spellbinding. . . . The Witch is dreamlike, elliptical, unsettling and beautiful."
—The Financial Times
"A story of inheritance and liberation centered around a very NDiaye protagonist: someone holding it together in situations teetering on chaos."
—Lit Hub
"Short, sharp, and deceptively simple. . . . Unsettling and evocative, NDiaye’s short novel distills dreams and truths alike."
—Kirkus Reviews
"NDiaye's novel will keep readers engrossed with its supernaturalism mixed with suburban bourgeois banalities. Anyone interested in late 20th-century French culture and literature will find this book entertaining but also bittersweet."
—Library Journal
"A 144-page grenade of walloping emotions. . . . Totally bizarre yet captivating. . . . A bad marriage is no new fodder for fiction, but NDiaye’s extremely creative characters and absolutely outlandish twists take this well-traveled subject to a new level. Her dark humor is a constant, and she makes even the hardest moments of the story resonate with a deep understanding of human nature."
—BookPage (starred review)
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