Apocalypse Baby is the latest novel by Virginie Despentes, subversive writer and filmmaker of Baise-Moi. It focuses on missing teenager, Valentine, and Lucie, the inexperienced private detective hired to find her. When you've finished chasing the pair around Paris, try one of these other feminist road-trips:

Brooke Kroeger - Nellie Bly: Daredevil, Reporter, Feminist
A sensational book on an elusive subject, this biography moves almost as fast as Bly's action-crammed life.

Rebecca Makkai - The Borrower
When the mother of precocious 10 year-old Ian enrols him in 'anti-gay' classes, his only option is to run away to the library. There he meets with children's librarian Lucy, and they embark on a spontaneous road trip. But is Ian the only one looking for escape?

Tom Robbins - Even Cowgirls Get the Blues
The cowgirls at the Rubber Rose Ranch are rebelling, and the FBI are clueless - worse still, white-trash goddess Sissy Hankshaw has joined the party. This novel shows that there's more to cross-USA roadtrips than just Kerouac.

Janice Galloway - Foreign Parts
Cassie and Rona are on a driving holiday in Northern France - but this is a Janice Galloway novel, so things are neither rosy nor peachy. As well as a caustic and unflinching examination of dysfunctional relationships, this is also very (though darkly) funny.

Angela Carter - The Passion of New Eve
A wild and dangerous ride through gender and sexuality, set in a future USA on the verge of civil war. Like much of Carter's stories this is lushly-written, apocalyptic, and a little bit smutty.

Apocalypse Baby is published by Serpent's Tail on Thu 27 June.