ZED

Serving a three-year sentence after assaulting a police officer during a raid that saw her boyfriend accidentally killed, the quick-tempered, 20-year-old Ombline discovers that she’s pregnant and obliged to give birth while incarcerated.

With no close family members or friends to lend a helping hand, she decides to bring up her boy Lucas in the grim prison nursery, suffering through the usual sleepless nights, crying fits and diarrhea spells, not to mention endless shouting in the courtyard, a nasty guard and a growing feeling that she’s powerless as both a mother and a person.

Tracking with intimate detail every step of Ombline’s progress, Cazes initially offers up some valuable insights into the troubling reality of prison child-rearing – from the lack of decent medical care to the makeshift toys and dolls – revealing how women in such situations cope with solitude and minimal resources as they try to create suitable environments for their kids.