From HAZZLIT MAGAZINE
The author of The School of Mirrors on sexual violence, the history of midwifery, and opening up archival silences.
Women’s bodies have long been used as tools of conquest, in displays of dominance and acts of war, their voices unheard.
These are silences that Eva Stachniak opens up with her latest novel, The School of Mirrors (Doubleday). Véronique and Marie-Louise—mother and daughter, both from the poorest class, with little agency of their own—live in 18th century France, a place where a debauched king can keep a stable of very young women in a house known as Deer Park, some who haven’t yet bled, for his personal pleasure.
Silence We Inherit and Carry With Us’: Eva Stachniak interviewed by Christine Fischer Guy