One day, author Édouard Louis finds a photo of his mother from twenty years ago. A happy young woman, full of hopes, full of dreams. But Édouard only knows his mother to be completely unhappy, trapped in the humdrum life of a housewife. What happened in those years since the photo was taken?

We see how, every day, his mother has to fight the dominant world of men, in which she is not allowed to pursue her talents and dreams. She is not even allowed to take driving lessons. It takes her twenty years to free herself from this oppression. She leaves her husband, leaves her old life behind and starts a new one in Paris.

Ivo van Hove about Battles and metamorphoses of a woman

'After his works in which violence in the main focus, Édouard Louis surprised me with a text in which tenderness sets the tone. The book describes the challenging battles of a woman trying to be herself, to make her own choices. But most of all, it is about the slow rapprochement between a son and his mother.'

The work of Édouard Louis is radically personal. His novels are extremely autobiographical, but socially urgent too. He desires to give a voice to the working class, people that are rarely given any attention in literature or in theatre.

After Who killed my father, the book of the father, Édouard Louis writes the book of his mother: Battles and metamorphoses of a woman.