A Hymn for Life is the memoir of a middle-aged French woman called Gisèle who was the victim of multiple violent rapes, over a decade, without her knowledge or consent.
Between 2011 - 2020 she was drugged at regular intervals by her husband Dominique, so HE could watch her being raped, while unconscious, by dozens of dirty men whom he had invited to their home in Mazan, France.
Her memoir traces her journey from her grief-stricken childhood, to her being a naive, trusting compliant wife, to being awakened to the truth and her new status as international feminist icon in 2024. Her confronting case prompted a revision of, and legislation of, new rape laws in France. In 2025 she was bestowed the Knight of the Legion of Honour (France's highest award), and in February 2026 she published her memoir.
The memoir starts with her description of her morning routine, "I always set the table for breakfast the night before". Her routine was her talisman, and a way to "will for a harmonious day ahead". She doted on her husband's comforts, she was proud of their marriage, and he was well looked after. However, the psychologist's assessment of her was that she "was a slave" which upset her, as she didn't see herself in that light. Denial had always been her constant default until the mounting evidence against her husband caused a slow and painful re-think.
Red Flag: Even when the truth was in plain sight, the lies, deceit and Dominique's double life did not come into focus until he was caught upskirting women in the local supermarket.
Even when she went to the police headquarters for his interrogation, she continued to jump to his defence and even apologised for his behaviour.
Up until this time, nothing was going to disturb her carefully curated life which had sustained her from years of loss and hardship during her childhood.
Red flag: Unfortunately, she married into Dominique's family and turned a blind eye to behaviour that was even more dysfunctional than her own family. How she ignored the blatant sexual exploitation of the women in Dominique's family, and assume that she was safe and loved in her own marriage seems incredulous. She had internalised the misogyny and admitted to consistently dismissing bad behaviour as "male entitlement".
Red flag: She, like most women, was duped by a husband who wore a doting mask and always controlled the narrative.
Modern words like: red flag, bread crumbing, gaslighting, love bombing and ghosting were not in the vocabulary of this generation of women. Consequently, even when her intuition crackled, she had no words to describe what she felt.
Slowly, slowly, the police interrogators showed her, her marriage had been a farce.
Red flag: Even though she knew her husband was unreliable, unemployable, depressed and financially chaotic she thought it was her norm. Despite this, she was the steadfast money earner, was upwardly mobile in her career, and was adept at juggling her financial poverty with her public persona.
When at the police station all she wished for was "to go home" and back to her "normal life" but even her bed - the place of unspeakable depravity - was no longer safe.
She admits there were little signs along the way that were out of the ordinary.
Red Flag: When one of her friends told her, her husband had hit on her, Gisèle unfriended her.
Red Flag: Another time, she complained that a cocktail made by her husband tasted funny and she had watched her husband quickly discarded it without question.
Red flag: And then there was the time, he cooked two separate dishes of mashed potato because he said they liked separate seasonings.
Food was not a shared experience, but rather a tool used against Gisèle.
And while she didn't allow herself to suspect anything, at a later date she realised that she had noted it but let it go. Today's modern women are learning to trust their intuition with the mantra: "Men might lie but your body never does".
Red Flag: When she complained of strange ailments like memory loss, fatigue, strange vaginal discharge and pelvic discomfort, her male doctor dismissed it as female ageing. A typical response. Many women are dismised in this way. The medical establishment also betrayed her. Not one swab was taken and her concerns were never listened to or investigated.
Red Flag: Moreover, Dominique always went to the doctor's appointments to offer support, commiserate with the doctor and control the narrative.
Red Flag: And there was the time when Dominique got caught stealing lingerie (that was not Gisèle's style) while shopping with his wife, and the saleswoman told Gisèle that it was such "a sweet thing for her husband to do" for her.
As the media attention mounted and court room proceedings exposed the full extent of her husband's depravity she chose to have an Open Court - much to the anger of the 51 men identified in the videos - who wore hoodies and masks in the court room now that the spotlight was on them.
Women had always been encouraged to have a Closed Court so as not to feel shame, but much to her credit Gisèle's war cry was:
"It's time for shame to change sides".
Interestingly, the 51 men accused of rape, were supported by wives, girlfriends, sisters and mother's, who all testified that their men were innocent, and they refused to watch the videos that proved otherwise. The men themselves also proclaimed innocence since Gisèle's husband had given them permission to rape her.
Women across France were outraged and thousands gathered outside the courts. This resulted in the change in legislation of French rape laws to "any non-consensual sexual act....constitutes sexual assault."
It's now 2026. Gisèle and her family continue to heal. Dominique was jailed for life, the 51 perpetrators received gaol sentences and the 30 unidentified men on the videos ... well, they are still out there...
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