Reading Europe - France: Three Strong Women - over the next 18 months Radio 4 takes you on a journey across Europe exploring the best in contemporary literature.

In this award winning and best-selling French novel Marie NDiaye explores the immigrant experience and the power of humanity. Caught between France and Africa, three women take flight, and their lives are altered forever.

Part 1

When Norah's terrifying father calls, she's forced to leave her home in Paris and journey to Dakar. Secrets from the past and horrors from the present are unveiled.
Meanwhile, in the Gironde, Fanta and her husband Rudy are still coming to terms with the life they left behind in Senegal.

Adapted for radio by Pat Cumper
From a translation by John Fletcher.

Directed by Helen Perry
A BBC Cymru/Wales Production

Marie NDiaye is French novelist and playwright. She is the first black woman to win France's most prestigious literary prize - the Prix Goncourt - for Three Strong Women in 2009. The novel was also long-listed for The 2014 International IMPAC DUBLIN Literary Award and it was a finalist for the 2013 Man Booker International Prize. Show less