A Hymn To Life: Shame Has To Change Sides by Giséle Pelicot is the long-anticipated memoir by the French woman whose husband drugged and raped her hundreds of times, allowing strange men into their bedroom at night while she slept, unaware. While I’ve heard people in the bookstore say, “I could never read that book,” I was eager to do so, wanting to hear her story in her words and be an audience to the horror that she experienced. And horror, it was. Pelicot’s husband – an evil and sick man – not only violated her in horrendous ways, but he convinced her for years that she was losing her memory and suffering from mysterious medical issues. The discovery of his crimes tore their once close-knit family apart, depriving Pelicot of her beloved role as a mother and grandmother and forcing her to leave the beautiful home where they had moved for their retirement. She approached her husband’s trial with unfathomable courage, facing him and the dozens of men who had raped her in an open courtroom, forcing herself to listen to their testimony. She became a feminist icon in France, giving voice to women who have suffered abuse and misogyny and pushing for a shift in how crimes against women are perceived and prosecuted. I highly recommend this disturbing, eloquent and important memoir, which I think about all the time. I listened to the audio version, which is narrated by Emma Thompson and is also excellent.