diff --git a/deodr/__init__.py b/deodr/__init__.py
index 0844d8f..92a878e 100644
--- a/deodr/__init__.py
+++ b/deodr/__init__.py
@@ -9,6 +9,8 @@
 
 Martin de La Gorce. 2019.
 """
+__version__ = "0.1.17"
+
 __all__ = [
     "Scene2D",
     "Scene3D",
@@ -20,14 +22,11 @@
 ]
 
 import os
-
 from .differentiable_renderer import Camera, Scene2D, Scene3D
 from .laplacian_rigid_energy import LaplacianRigidEnergy
 from .obj import read_obj
 from .triangulated_mesh import ColoredTriMesh, TriMesh
 
 root_path = os.path.dirname(__file__)
-with open(os.path.join(root_path, "version.txt")) as f:
-    __version__ = f.read().strip()
 
 data_path = os.path.join(root_path, "data")
diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index af32b94..61132ac 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -1,6 +1,7 @@
 """Setup script for the DEODR project."""
 
 import os
+import re
 from setuptools import setup, find_packages
 
 from Cython.Build import cythonize
@@ -24,9 +25,15 @@
 
 libname = "deodr"
 
-with open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), "deodr", "version.txt")) as f:
-    version = f.read().strip()
-
+with open(os.path.join(os.path.dirname(__file__), 'deodr', '__init__.py')) as fp:
+    for line in fp:
+        m = re.search(r'^\s*__version__\s*=\s*([\'"])([^\'"]+)\1\s*$', line)
+        if m:
+            version = m.group(2)
+            break
+    else:
+        raise RuntimeError('Unable to find own __version__ string')
+print(f"version = {version}")
 setup(
     name=libname,
     version=version,