Gisele Pericot, a French woman whose husband was convicted of a horrific crime, has shared her story in a memoir. This book outlines the traumas she experienced and explains her decision to expose her ordeal in a trial that shocked many.
Titled “Hymn to Life,” this memoir, released recently, has turned the 73-year-old Pericot into a beacon of hope for the rally against sexual violence in France, even leading to changed rape laws.
In her memoir, she reflected on her choice to forego anonymity, stating: “No one will ever know what they did to me… No one except those involved in the trial will confront them, wondering if they’d find a rapist among their neighbors.”
“Hell and Ura”
She recounts a chilling encounter with the police, who first questioned whether she and her husband were swingers. It was in that moment she discovered her husband had been drugging and assaulting her for years.
When she denied it, they showed her a photo of herself unconscious in bed with an unfamiliar man. “The police officer told me a staggering number: 53 men came to my home to assault me,” the memoir details.
Afterward, she describes an unsettling moment at home, where she hung up her husband’s laundry, likening herself to a dog waiting for its master.
Communicating the details of her ordeal to friends and especially her children was far from easy. She mentioned how she dreaded the impact this would have on her daughter Caroline, who she felt would “go through hell and come back.”
Besides her now ex-husband Dominic Pericot, around 50 men were convicted in connection with her assault.
“Believing in people is my revenge.”
During the trial, Pericot refrained from addressing her ex-husband directly, but planned to visit him in prison to seek some answers, asking questions that haunted her, like whether he ever considered stopping or the extent of his actions.
She mentioned that the flood of support from women around the world through letters gave her strength. “After the trial began, I started receiving numerous letters daily, which I found more uplifting than newspapers,” she noted.
In her book, she also captured the experience of finding love again with someone introduced by a friend. Reflecting on their first meeting, she wrote, “I was giddy with happiness.” She concluded with an inspiring notion: “I had to love again. I’m not afraid… I still believe in people. It shifted from being my weakness to becoming my strength—my revenge.”
