Overview
- Published on February 17 and translated into 22 languages, Et la joie de vivre (with the English edition A Hymn to Life: Shame Has to Change Sides) recounts her life before, during and after the Avignon trial.
- Pelicot describes a decade of assaults enabled by chemical submission and exposed after her husband’s 2020 upskirting arrest led police to photos, videos and messages documenting the crimes.
- Now 73, she says she has rebuilt on Île de Ré, found a new partner, and intends to visit her imprisoned ex-husband to seek answers.
- The 2024 trial resulted in a 20-year sentence for Dominique Pelicot and convictions for about fifty co-defendants, with one appeal later increasing a defendant’s sentence by a year.
- International coverage and tributes from figures such as Gloria Steinem, Simone Biles and Emma Thompson underscore the case’s impact, as lawmakers in France moved to redefine rape and investigators continue to probe unidentified perpetrators and potential cold-case links.