Author Guide · Memoir
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On 2 January 2020 the Paris publisher Grasset brought out Le Consentement, a short memoir by Vanessa Springora, who had just been made head of the publishing house Julliard. In it she describes how, at 14, she was drawn into a relationship with the writer Gabriel Matzneff, more than thirty-five years older, who had written openly about adolescents for decades and had won the Renaudot essay prize in 2013. Soon afterwards the Paris prosecutor opened an investigation, his publishers stopped working with him, and in April 2021 the French Parliament set the age of sexual consent at 15. Five years later she followed it with Patronyme, about her father and grandfather. This guide covers her two books, in order, and where to begin.
By Lisanne Swart · 2 key books · 2020–2025 · Updated October 2026
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Quick answer
Vanessa Springora has published two books: Le Consentement (2020), translated into English as Consent (2021), and Patronyme (2025), a family history. Start with Consent: it is the book that changed the debate about sexual consent in France, and the reason her second book was so closely watched.
Where to Start with Vanessa Springora
If you want the book that changed French law
→ Consent (2020) — the 2020 memoir, in English as Consent.
If you want to understand the Matzneff affair
→ Consent (2020) — her account of the man and the circle that protected him.
If you want a family history
→ Patronyme (2025) — her father, her grandfather and the origin of her surname.
If you have already read Consent
→ Patronyme (2025) — the 2025 book that takes her story back a generation.
2 Vanessa Springora Books, in Order
Consent
Published in France as Le Consentement (Grasset, January 2020), it tells how Springora, raised in Paris by her mother, met the writer Gabriel Matzneff at 13 and how a relationship began at 14, and examines the literary world that celebrated him while knowing what he wrote about. It became a bestseller in France, won the Prix Jean-Jacques-Rousseau for autobiography in 2020 and has been widely translated. The English edition, translated by Natasha Lehrer, came out with HarperVia in February 2021; Vanessa Filho adapted it for the cinema in 2023, with Kim Higelin and Jean-Paul Rouve.
Patronyme
Published by Grasset on 2 January 2025, five years to the day after her first book. It starts with the death of her father, whom she had not seen for more than ten years, found dead in his Paris flat in January 2020. Clearing out the apartment of her grandparents, where he had lived, she found a photograph of her grandfather wearing a Nazi insignia, and the book follows her investigation into his life and into the family name, Springer until it became Springora in 1946.
In What Order to Read Vanessa Springora
Read them in publication order. Patronyme stands on its own, but it opens in the same month that Le Consentement came out, and its questions about her father and about silence in a family follow on from the first book.
Consent is short and is the one available in English; Patronyme was published in French in 2025.
A reading path
1. Consent (2020)
2. Patronyme (2025)
The years · 1972–2025
Quick facts about Vanessa Springora
- Known for
- Vanessa Springora is known for Le Consentement (2020), the memoir about the writer Gabriel Matzneff that led to a criminal investigation and fed into the French law of 2021 setting the age of sexual consent at 15.
- 1972
- Born in Paris
- 2006
- Joins the publisher Julliard
- 2020
- Le Consentement
- 2025
- Patronyme
- Born
- 16 March 1972, Paris; raised by her mother
- Education
- Lycée Fénelon, then a DEA in modern literature at Paris-Sorbonne
- Publishing
- Julliard from 2006; head of the house from 2019 until 2021
- Film work
- Writer-director at the INA from 2003; the documentary Dérive and the TV series Quotidien (2016)
- English translator
- Natasha Lehrer (Consent, HarperVia, 2021)
- Adaptation
- Le Consentement (2023), directed by Vanessa Filho
The red mark is 2020: Le Consentement, the memoir that reopened the Matzneff affair in France.
How Vanessa Springora Writes: A Publisher’s Memoir
Le Consentement is short and moves in parts from childhood to adulthood, opening with “L’enfant”. Springora writes in the first person but often steps back to look at her younger self, who in the first line calls herself only “V.”. The book is restrained: it focuses on the mechanics of influence, isolation and silence rather than on scenes.
She writes as someone from inside French publishing, and much of the book is about that world: the prizes, the television appearances and the reviewers that treated Matzneff’s writing about adolescents as literature. That is why it read in France as an account of a whole milieu, not only of one man. She said publicly that she did not want his books withdrawn from sale.
Patronyme keeps the first person but becomes an investigation, working from documents, photographs and family records towards a grandfather she barely knew. For other writers who turn a personal story into a social record, see Authors like Annie Ernaux.
Frequently asked questions about Vanessa Springora’s books
How many books has Vanessa Springora written?
Two: Le Consentement (2020), published in English as Consent (2021), and Patronyme (2025).
What are Vanessa Springora’s books in order?
Le Consentement (2020) and Patronyme (2025), both published in Paris by Grasset.
Where should I start with Vanessa Springora?
With Consent. It is her best-known book, the one available in English, and the background to Patronyme.
What is Vanessa Springora’s most famous book?
Le Consentement (2020). It became a bestseller in France, won the Prix Jean-Jacques-Rousseau for autobiography in 2020 and has been widely translated, including into English as Consent (2021).
What impact did Consent have in France?
Soon after publication the Paris prosecutor opened a preliminary investigation into Gabriel Matzneff for rape of a minor under 15. Gallimard stopped publishing his diaries and his other publishers dropped him, and the Paris deputy mayor Christophe Girard, who had supported him, resigned in July 2020. In April 2021 the French Parliament passed a law under which any sexual act by an adult with a child under 15 is treated as rape, with no question of consent. The book is widely cited as one of the triggers of that debate.
Is Consent available in English?
Yes. Natasha Lehrer’s translation was published by HarperVia, an imprint of HarperCollins, in February 2021.
Has Consent been made into a film?
Yes. Le Consentement (2023), directed by Vanessa Filho, with Kim Higelin as Springora and Jean-Paul Rouve as Matzneff.
What is Patronyme about?
Her father, who died in Paris in January 2020 after years without contact, and her paternal grandfather, whom she discovered from a photograph had worn a Nazi insignia. The book traces his life and the family name, changed from Springer to Springora in 1946.
Did Le Consentement win any prizes?
It received the Prix Jean-Jacques-Rousseau for autobiography and the Grand Prix des lectrices de Elle in the documents category, both in 2020, and Livres Hebdo named Springora its author of the year.
Is Vanessa Springora still a publisher?
She ran Julliard from 2019 until September 2021, when she stepped down from its management to write. She stayed attached to the house and launched a collection there in 2023.
Footnotes
- Vanessa Springora — Wikipedia
- Vanessa Springora — Wikimonde (French Wikipedia)
- French MPs approve law setting age of sexual consent — Euronews, 2021
- French publisher’s jarring memoir to be released in English — AP via Ahram Online, 2020
- Patronyme : de quoi parle le nouveau livre de Vanessa Springora — L’Éclaireur Fnac, 2025
- Le Consentement, extract — ActuaLitté
Bibliography last verified 9 October 2026. Where sources give different first-publication years, this page uses the year in library catalogues or the publisher’s own record.
This list was not put together by a machine.
The notes are all mine,
and the books are all his.
Lisanne x
Written by Lisanne Swart, who has curated reading lists and author guides at lisanneswart.com since 2021.
See more on her personal bookshelf.
“À l’aube de ma vie, vierge de toute expérience, je me prénomme V., et du haut de mes cinq ans, j’attends l’amour.”
— Vanessa Springora, Le Consentement (2020), the first line
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