El coste de vivir

Deborah Levy begins writing this book when, at the age of fifty, she is forced to reinvent herself: her marriage is over, her income is declining, her mother is dying, and her daughters are starting to leave the nest. At a time when life should become placid and unflappable, Ella Levy decides to embrace chaos and instability in exchange for recovering, hidden under layers and layers of resignation, a name of her own. Through a dialogue with intellectuals such as Marguerite Duras or Simone de Beauvoir, and through memories that he evokes with eloquence, sensitivity and a delicious sense of humor, Levy asks himself what is this fictional role written by men and played by women that we call "femininity". Anyone who has struggled to be free and to build a life of their own knows that it is precisely that: a constant struggle in which a cost is paid for living.