A compelling novel about the requirement to be perfect, without completely losing sight of yourself - by the greatest feminist of the twentieth-century, Simone de Beauvoir. Laurence lives what appears to be an ideal existence. Her life features all the trappings of the 1960s Parisian bourgeoisie: money, a handsome husband, two daughters and a lover. She also has a successful career as an advertising copywriter, though her mind unbidden writes copy whilst she's at home, and dreams of domesticity in the office. But Laurence is a woman whose happiness was relegated long ago by the expectation of perfection. Relentlessly torn by the competing needs of her family, it is only when her 10-year-old daughter, Catherine, starts to vocalise her despair about the unfairness of the world that Laurence resists. TRANSLATED BY LAUREN ELKIN