Three Strong Women, By Marie NDiaye

Marie NDiaye was just 18 when the French editor Jérôme Lindon published her debut novel to great acclaim.

Her subsequent fiction and dramas have been no less successful, with Three Strong Women winning the Prix Goncourt.

Moving between France and Senegal, it features three heroines facing different battles: Norah who thinks she's made it when she qualifies as a lawyer in Paris: Fanta, who wins her way into a prestigous teaching job; and Khady, who runs a café and wants a child.

Translator John Fletcher boldly takes on NDiaye's more convoluted sentences.