The first book in Cee Vee’s Reading Circle is The Inseparables. It is a short novel about female friendship and the protagonist’s experiences with her selfhood, family, and society.

This novel was written in 1954, but was published posthumously. It is considered to be a fictionalised account of de Beauvoir’s formative relationship with her childhood friend Elisabeth “Zaza” Lacoin. It traces the evolving bond between two young girls, Sylvie and Andrée, as they navigate education, religion, and social expectations in early 20th-century France.

At its core, it is a reflection on how intellectual companionship and emotional intimacy can be both shaped and limited by patriarchal structures. It also reflects the philosophy that we see in de Beauvoir’s feminist and existentialist work, particularly the tension between freedom and social constraint.