Marie NDiaye (born 1967) is a French novelist and playwright. She published her first novel, Quant au riche avenir, when she was only 17 and she won the Prix Femina in 2001 for her novel Rosie Carpe. Her play Papa doit manger has been taken into the repertoire of the Comédie française.

 

Ndiaye was born in Pithiviers and grew up with her French mother. Her father was Senegalese but she met him for the first time when she was fifteen. She began writing at the age of 12. After her first novel she wrote a further six novels, all published by Minuit, and a collection of short stories. She also wrote her Comédie Classique, a two-hundred page novel made up of a single sentence, which was published by POL at the age of 21. As well as writing novels, Ndiaye has written a number of plays and a screenplay. Papa doit manger is only the second play by a female writer to be taken into the repertoire of the Comédie française.

 

Her novel Trois femmes puissantes won the 2009 Prix Goncourt.

 

 

  Works

NDiaye has written a dozen books, from novels to short story collections and plays, and in 2001 she won France's Femina literary prize, awarded by a jury of women.

Her latest novel, ''Trois femmes puissantes,'' is the story of characters Norah, Fanta and Khadi's fight to ''preserve their dignity in the face of humiliations that life has inflicted,'' according to her publisher Gallimard.

 

Norah is a French lawyer with roots in West Africa; Fanta is a Senegalese woman living in France; and Khadi is a young Senegalese woman who tries to immigrate illegally to Europe.

 

 Novels and Short Stories

 

    * Quant au riche avenir - Minuit, 1985 (ISBN 2-7073-1018-2)

    * Comédie classique - P.O.L, 1988 (ISBN 2-86744-082-3)

    * La femme changée en bûche - Minuit, 1989 (ISBN 2-7073-1285-1)

    * En famille - Minuit, 1991 (ISBN 2-7073-1367-X)

    * Un temps de saison - Minuit, 1994 (ISBN 2-7073-1474-9)

    * La Sorcière - Minuit, 1996 (ISBN 2-7073-1569-9)

    * Rosie Carpe - Minuit, Prix Femina 2001 (ISBN 2-7073-1740-3)

    * Tous mes amis, nouvelles - Minuit, 2004 (ISBN 2-7073-1859-0)

    * Autoportrait en vert - Mercure de France, 2005 (ISBN 2-7152-2481-8)

    * Mon cœur a l'etroit - Gallimard, 2007 (ISBN 978-2-07-077457-9)

    * Trois femmes puissantes - Gallimard, 2009 (ISBN 978-2070786541)

 

 Plays

 

    * Hilda - Minuit, 1999 (ISBN 2-7073-1661-X)

    * Papa doit manger - Minuit, 2003 (ISBN 2-7073-1798-5)

    * Rien d'humain - Les Solitaires Intempestifs, 2004 (ISBN 2-84681-095-8)

    * Les serpents - Minuit, 2004 (ISBN 2-7073-1856-6)

 

 Children's novels

 

    * La diablesse et son enfant, illustration Nadja - École des loisirs, 2000 (ISBN 2211056601)

    * Les paradis de Prunelle, illustration Pierre Mornet - Albin Michel Jeunesse, 2003 (ISBN 2226140689)

    * Le souhait, illustration Alice Charbin - École des loisirs, 2005 (ISBN 2211079628)

 

 Essays

 

    * La naufragée - Flohic, 1999 (ISBN 2842340620)