Studies on criminal desistance –the cessation of crimes and adoption of a pro-social identity –frequently use narratives and qualitative analyses to identify how delinquents describe their identity changes through the desistance process. In his classic study, Maruna (2001) used the life-story interview developed by McAdams (1993) to extract nuances in delinquent’s narrative discourse that enabled to distinguish between persisters and desisters. Although Maruna’s work is recognized to be the cradle of the (re)emergence of narrative criminology, few studies have attempted on replicating his study and, to the extent of our knowledge, no French-language criminological research has used McAdams’ interview to apprehend desistance processes. Using this specific interview method, this article aims at identifying how narrative identity precedes, accompanies, or results in desistance in a sample of emerging adults (n=28). Contributions on theoretical, methodological, and clinical levels are discussed considering the results obtained from the analysis.