Self-regard, in the works of Annie Ernaux, is always an excruciatingly painful and exact process. Here, she revisits the peculiar kind of self-fulfillment possible when we examine ourselves in the aftermath of a love affair, and sometimes, even, through the eyes of the lost beloved.Born in 1940, Ann[...]

On her mother's death, Annie Ernaux travels back in time to reunite Mother and Daughter - writing both movingly and quixotically 'to capture the real woman, the one who existed independently from me, born on the outskirts of a small Normandy town, and who died in the geriatric ward of a hospital in [...]

Cleaned Out tells the story of Denise Lesur, a 20-year-old woman suffering the after-effects of a back-alley abortion. Alone in her college dorm room, Denise attempts to understand how her suffocating middle-class upbringing has brought her to such an awful present. Ernaux, one of France's most impo[...]

A fictional memoir of the author's youth focuses on a young girl who becomes a witness to a terrifying confrontation between her parents during which her father tries to kill her mother, detailing the long-term impact of the event on the family and on the girl as she grows up. IP.[...]