Reading guide: The Witch by Marie NDiaye, translated by Jordan Stump
Dreamlike and unsettling, The Witch is set in a small French town where a mediocre witch passes on her gifts to her twin daughters, who turn out to have skills far beyond her own
Marie NDiaye
Marie NDiaye was born in France and published her first novel at the age of 17
Her works have won the Prix Femina (Rosie Carpe in 2001) and the Prix Goncourt (Three Strong Women, 2009). Her play Papa Doit Manger has been taken into the repertoire of the Comédie Française.
Her novel Ladivine (translated into English by Jordan Stump) was longlisted for the International Booker Prize in 2016, and in 2020 she was awarded the Prix Marguerite Yourcenar for her entire body of work.
Stump’s translation of her novel The Witch, first published in French in 1996, was shortlisted for the International Booker Prize 2026.
NDiaye lives in Paris.
Author photo © Hélie Gallimard
The language in this novel – and in Jordan Stump’s translation – is exquisite: sentences twist and transform in unexpected ways
— The International Booker Prize 2026 judges on The Witch
