Set between May 1969 and the election of Mitterrand in 1981, against a background of enormous societal changes, the novel chronicles the coming-of-age of three sisters growing up in a Catholic family and finding their own distinctive path through life. Apart from being a comprehensive and panoramic overview of these critical years in France’s history, at its heart it’s a compelling and immersive family saga. There are inevitably many references to French history and culture – the girls naturally enjoy French music and I enjoyed discovering the singers and songs that were so formative for them thanks to YouTube – so a certain amount of research is necessary to fully appreciate the importance of the changing attitudes and indeed laws of the era. Although actually even without that background knowledge it’s still an absorbing story, told with insight and empathy, and I very much enjoyed it.

Daughters Beyond Command focuses on three sisters in a Catholic French family, and tracks their lives through huge societal changes and female liberation. A little dive into French society and politics between the late sixties and early eighties, this novel is exactly up my street in the way it weaves historical momentum with individual lives and anxieties - it reminded me in a sense of McEwan’s Lessons, in the way it traces history in the personal.

Despite being sisters, Sabine, Hélène and Mariette all have distinct different upbringings and personalities which contrast one another. They remain tender and close knit but not without conflict, and I think it’s a beautiful portrayal of sisterhood and indeed female relationships in general in the winder novel which has that Ferrante like note to it.

Equally, I enjoyed the familial setting of the novel and how one can feel split across different aspects of their family, and how families can dissolve and change with some two leaving for Paris and Mariette having to begin to live without their presence. Again, a very realistic portrait of this impact - this entire novel felt very real and very alive, despite being set in the past it was totally immersive.

I loved this book and thanks to the publishers and NetGalley for an ARC version of it.
Sabine, Hélène and Mariette are sisters born in rural France to small parents happy with their small life. Written against the backdrop of French socio-political history from the 60s to the 80s it’s a story of French feminism, secularism, socialism and environmentalism. The three sisters are trying to make themselves and find themselves. As they try to slough off the traces of their parents’ conservative family values we are exposed to the changing French world: post- war right wing beliefs morphing into Mitterrand’s socialist agenda - frightening for the parents but liberating for their daughters. Moving between Paris and Aix and floating between the perspectives of the three girls this was a wonderful publication from Europa - of which we have come to expect. Brilliant stories alongside socio-political engagement.
I thought it was brilliant!

Sabine dreams of living as an artist in Paris; Hélène has grown up living between her middle-class aunt and uncle and her more modest parents; Mariette is learning the secrets of the crazy world around her. Daughters Beyond Command follows the evolution of a modest, Catholic family living in Aix-en-Provence between May 1968 and the momentous election of Francois Mitterrand in 1981.

The young Malvieri sisters watch on as French society changes and women gradually gain their freedom, while men seem to lose their way. The three each find their own means of succeeding in this new world and living an independent life, free from the morals, education and religion of their childhood. Their story resonates all the more poignantly as many of these freedoms, as established as we may have thought they were, are now under threat.

"In 1970 there was the possibility of the dream and the possibility of making it concrete."

Award-winning playwright and author Véronique Olmi blends coming-of-age story with family saga. Through the experiences of a struggling, bourgeois, Catholic family, Olmi tracks political and social upheavals in France after May 1968 - beginning in 1970 and ending with the election of Mitterrand, the first left-wing president France had seen in years. Olmi peppers her book with detailed references to the music, cinema and literature of the era; while events in her fictionalised family’s lives overlap with broader societal shifts: women’s freedoms – access to contraception and legal abortion; the fight for workers’ rights; burgeoning sexual and artistic liberation; feminism's challenge to the patriarchy; a growing awareness of animal rights and the seeds of today’s green movement.

In her intricate exploration of generational divides and the complicated interactions between the personal and the political, Olmi centres three sisters: Sabine, Hélène and Mariette Malvieri who grow up in Aix-en-Provence. Despite their sheltered upbringing, each one’s destined to become someone whose dreams, and whose future, will be vastly different from that of their devout, conventional parents. It’s evident Olmi’s partly recreating her own formative years here. Like Olmi, Sabine breaks away to study theatre in Paris, and Hélène splits her time between her family and long vacations with her wealthy aunt and uncle. Olmi seems intent on using her fictional siblings to cover every major, cultural milestone of the period: from Sartre’s funeral to the Vietnam War; the hypocrisy and corruption within the Catholic church; and the terrorist attacks taking place in France throughout the seventies. Some of these are glimpsed in newspaper headlines or via television documentaries, some become fused with her characters’ lived experiences – Olmi makes frequent use of footnotes to ground her material in fact.

I thought this was a very solidly written, fairly absorbing piece. It flows well and it’s really interesting as a representation of French culture and society at key points in its past. But as a novel I found it unbalanced and sometimes frustrating. Olmi’s desire to provide a comprehensive picture of an era often threatened to overwhelm everything else in her narrative, so that her characters could appear as little more than props arranged to illustrate a point or provide an entryway into a significant moment in French history. So, despite finding many aspects of this fascinating, I was never as fully engaged as I might have been or wanted to be. Translated by Alison Anderson.

Thanks to Netgalley UK and publisher Europa Editions for an ARC

Daughters Beyond Command is a coming-of-age tale of three sisters growing up in Aix-en-Provence during a tumultuous period in French history.

Beginning in 1968 and continuing until the election of François Mitterrand in 1981, the novel centres around the Malivieri sisters. The oldest, Sabine, dreams of leaving her childhood behind and moving to Paris; the youngest, Mariette, navigates an ever-changing relationship with her parents as the family adjusts to her sisters growing up; and Hélène, the middle child, finds herself caught between the life of the bourgeoisie and the life of her childhood and parents. As the years pass, their lives orbit around each other while they find their own way in a changing world.

At a central point in each sister’s narrative is the developing force of feminism. The struggle for abortion and contraceptives features heavily, and Olmi ties this battle for autonomy into the power of the Catholic church over the family, and, on a larger scale, French society in its entirety. As the sisters are growing up, the conservative views held by the society are starting to wane and they find themselves torn between familial and societal traditions, and the possibility of change.

Beyond the central themes of coming-of-age and an ever-present undercurrent of feminism, Olmi also addresses inequality, social class, and racism in French society. The divide which politics creates in our relationships - friendships and familial - is an integral part of the novel and plays a role in the sisters’ search for their identities.

The novel also features a coming-of-age tale for the sisters’ mother, Agnès. She spent her youth raising her daughters and caring for her family, so it is only as her daughters become independent that Agnès attains the freedom to see her life beyond being a mother.

Wonderfully written and translated, Daughters Beyond Command contains themes which remain relevant 40 years after its setting, and the beauty with which its message is conveyed makes it a true must-read.

Daughters Beyond Command is a coming of age novel set between 1968 and 1981 in France in a lead up to the election of Francoise Mitterrand.

It is a family chronicle, following the lives of sisters, Sabine, an aspiring actress who dreams of life in Paris, Hélène, who lives a life divided by the bourgeoisie and her parents simple life, and Mariette, who learns the secrets of her family.

Olmi is a fantastic writer, through the use of beautiful language, lyrical prose and exceptional character development, the reader is allowed to grow attached to each sister and share their views and thoughts. From feminism and ecology, animal rights and human rights, the desire for stardom and the need for silence; all in the search for freedom.

It is through Olmi that we can learn more about France’s political situation and the rapid transformation France went through in the 70’s. The author details abortion laws, the Catholic Church’s influence, labour laws and right and left wing politics in France, in a easy to understand and informative way.

Showcasing femininity and female desire, the bond between sisters and highlighting the complications that arise amongst families.

This is more than just a coming of age family chronicle, it is a tribute to freedom and our right to fight for it. A tribute to women everywhere and the struggles we continue to face to this day.