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“Two little witches without scruples or ulterior motives, I said to myself, divided between fear and delight.”

First published in French 30 years ago as La Sorcière, Marie NDiaye’s novel has been translated into English as The Witch by Jordan Stump. The story of a woman trapped in a bad marriage is still as fresh today as it was a generation ago. This year, it is competing for the International Booker Prize.

Lucie, a housewife and a mediocre witch, initiates her 13-year-old twin daughters, Maud and Lise, to the power to see the future. They’ll cry tears of blood, but it will not be painful. The women in Lucie’s family are the ones with the power, and her mother, she believes, is a witch extraordinaire. However, her father’s indifference has prevented her mother from really putting her powers to use and she claims she prefers it this way. As for Lucie, who can only manage blurry visions, she is further cowed down by her husband’s open contempt for her talents.

There is no strict limitation on who can be initiated – which makes Lucie share her powers with her neighbour, Isabelle, who harbours an ambition for money and status, and loathes how being a mother has sabotaged it. The...

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