Trading Secrets (European Women Writers) - Softcover

Paule Constant is the author of seven novels, including The Governor's Daughter (Nebraska 1998), which was a finalist for the Prix Goncourt in 1994.  Betsy Wing's translations include The Governor's Daughter, Hélène Cixous's The Book of Promethea, and Edouard Glissant's The Fourth Century (all available from the University of Nebraska Press). Margot Miller teaches French at the University of Maryland.

"Set in a mythical Kansas university town, the book centers on four participants of a feminist colloquium who share a house and their lives . . . Through extended character studies that reveal each woman's life history, Constant suggests that they may all be different aspects of an everywoman, victimized by relationships and bad choices. . . . A somber but engaging work that provides keen insight into the feminist psyche."—Library Journal (Library Journal)

"The ambiguities of displacement and commitment are handled with real élan in this clever comic novel (its author's seventh), which won France's Prix Goncourt in 1998. It explores the interrelationships of four women who meet at a scholarly feminist conference held at Kansas college. . . . Constant's suave analyses of all four women give this engaging tale both welcome specificity and mind-teasing resonance."—Kirkus Reviews (Kirkus Reviews)

"Constant sets this bleak, angst-filled examination of love, envy, and distrust among women in Kansas after a feminist colloquium. . . . Constant illuminates the dark side of feminism, where women pay lip service to ideals but at the same time ruthlessly manipulate one another in the name of sisterhood."—Booklist (Booklist)