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The Witch
- Author
- Marie NDiaye
- Narrator
- Virginia Grainger
- Publisher
- Quercus
- Publish Date
- 7 April 2026
- Run Time
- 4 hours 9 minutes
- Format
- Audiobook
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What to expect
'NDiaye at her most dazzling' Katie Kitamura
'This is NDiaye at her disquieting best' New York Magazine
Lucie comes from a long line of witches, powers passed down from mother to daughter. Her own mum was formidable in her powers, but ashamed of her magic. Perhaps as a result, Lucie's own gift is weak: she can see into the future, sometimes - but more often, she can only see the present of some other location. Not very useful. And the worst part? All she can ever see are insignificant details - a scrap of outfit, the colour of the sky.
Lucie's own children are initiated into their family's peculiar womanhood when they reach twelve years of age, and in a few short months, Maud and Lise are crying the curious tears of blood that denote their magical powers. Having learned, they take off quickly and fly the nest. Literally.
Witty, dreamlike, vaguely unsettling, and utterly enchanting (pun intended), The Witch brings the mysteries of womanhood and motherhood into sharp relief and leaves us teetering on the edge, unbalanced by questions as seemingly unbreakable relationships break down left and right.
Who is to blame for family failures? And how can you - can you? - build a nest that no one wants to fly?
Critics Review
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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
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Family alienation meets suburban witchcraft in this short, fantastical work from one of France's greatest living novelists, which is finally getting an English translation nearly 30 years after it appeared in France. Lucie, a middling witch, is instructing her two daughters in the family's matrilineal talent of seeing the future - visions produce tears of blood - but their professionally disempowered father all but approves. As the bitter marriage at the center of the family unravels, the girls embrace their new gift more fully than Lucie could have imagined. This is NDiaye at her disquieting best
Vulture
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Spellbinding . . . dreamlike, elliptical, unsettling and beautiful
Financial Times
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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.
New York Times
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Spellbinding . . . Let me close with an act of divination: Marie NDiaye will win the Nobel Prize.
New Yorker
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Details
- Author
- Marie NDiaye
- Narrator
- Virginia Grainger
- Duration
- 4 hours 9 minutes
- Release Date
- 7 April 2026
- ISBN
- 9781529451290
- Format
- Audiobook
- Publisher
- Quercus
- Genre
- Fiction: literary and general non-genre, Fiction in translation, Narrative theme: interior life / psychological fiction
Synopsis
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.'NDiaye at her most dazzling' Katie Kitamura'This is NDiaye at her disquieting best' New York MagazineLucie comes from a long line of witches, powers passed down from mother to daughter. Her own mum was formidable in her powers, but ashamed of her magic. Perhaps as a result, Lucie's own gift is weak: she can see into the future, sometimes - but more often, she can only see the present of some other location. Not very useful. And the worst part? All she can ever see are insignificant details - a scrap of outfit, the colour of the sky.Lucie's own children are initiated into their family's peculiar womanhood when they reach twelve years of age, and in a few short months, Maud and Lise are crying the curious tears of blood that denote their magical powers. Having learned, they take off quickly and fly the nest. Literally.Witty, dreamlike, vaguely unsettling, and utterly enchanting (pun intended), The Witch brings the mysteries of womanhood and motherhood into sharp relief and leaves us teetering on the edge, unbalanced by questions as seemingly unbreakable relationships break down left and right.Who is to blame for family failures? And how can you - can you? - build a nest that no one wants to fly?
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