diff --git a/setup.py b/setup.py
index 5c5f5dc8fdb..545143a29a5 100644
--- a/setup.py
+++ b/setup.py
@@ -116,7 +116,8 @@ def build_extensions(self):
         # unfortunately, distutils doesn't let us provide separate C and C++
         # compilers
         if compiler is not None:
-            args['compiler_so'] = compiler
+            (ccshared,) = sysconfig.get_config_vars('CCSHARED')
+            args['compiler_so'] = compiler + ' ' + ccshared
         if linker_so is not None:
             args['linker_so'] = linker_so + ' -shared'
         self.compiler.set_executables(**args)