3.5
A Girl's Story
ByPublisher Description
WINNER OF THE 2022 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE
Another masterpiece of remembering from Annie Ernaux, the Man Booker International Prize–shortlisted author of The Years.
In A Girl’s Story, Annie Ernaux revisits the season 50 years earlier when she found herself overpowered by another’s will and desire. In the summer of 1958, 18-year-old Ernaux submits her will to a man’s, and then he moves on, leaving her without a “master,” bereft.
Now, 50 years later, she realizes she can obliterate the intervening years and return to consider this young woman that she wanted to forget completely. And to discover that here, submerged in shame, humiliation, and betrayal, but also in self-discovery and self-reliance, lies the origin of her writing life.
Another masterpiece of remembering from Annie Ernaux, the Man Booker International Prize–shortlisted author of The Years.
In A Girl’s Story, Annie Ernaux revisits the season 50 years earlier when she found herself overpowered by another’s will and desire. In the summer of 1958, 18-year-old Ernaux submits her will to a man’s, and then he moves on, leaving her without a “master,” bereft.
Now, 50 years later, she realizes she can obliterate the intervening years and return to consider this young woman that she wanted to forget completely. And to discover that here, submerged in shame, humiliation, and betrayal, but also in self-discovery and self-reliance, lies the origin of her writing life.
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Meet readers like you in the Fable For You feed, designed to build bookish communitiesA Girl's Story Reviews
3.5
“El libro me gustó aunque sentí que la parte después de la colonia me hizo desconectar mucho del libro y que dejara su lectura por un muy buen rato. Fuera de eso, me gusta cómo Ernaux termina el libro hablando sobre la posibilidad de dos realidades, la que se vive en el momento y la que se revisita. Creo que ese es el principal planteamiento del libro. Otro punto que me gustó es cómo abordó su sexualidad, me gusta que la Annie que vivió la realidad y la que la revisita nunca se juzgaron a sí mismas por sus acciones.”
“Annie Ernaux reflects on memory, shame, sexuality, and becoming a young woman in post-war France. I appreciated the historical context—especially the references to France during the Algerian War—and I could see what she was trying to accomplish.
Unfortunately, this just wasn't for me. I struggled to connect with the memoir and didn't relate to many of the experiences or reflections. It felt more like an extended analysis of a period in her life than a story I was invested in.
Reading it in French was a worthwhile challenge, but as a book, it just didn't resonate with me.”
“una prosa cruda y bella con una descripción perfecta de la experiencia femenina”
About Annie Ernaux
The author of some twenty works of fiction and memoir, ANNIE ERNAUX is considered by many to be France’s most important literary voice. She won the Prix Renaudot for A Man's Place and the Marguerite Yourcenar Prize for her body of work. More recently she received the International Strega Prize, the Prix Formentor, the French-American Translation Prize, and the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation for The Years, which was also shortlisted for the Man Booker International Prize.
ALISON L. STRAYER is a Canadian writer and translator. She won the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, and her work has been shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for Literature and for Translation, the Grand Prix du livre de Montreal, the Prix littéraire France-Québec, and the Man Booker International Prize. She lives in Paris.
ALISON L. STRAYER is a Canadian writer and translator. She won the Warwick Prize for Women in Translation, and her work has been shortlisted for the Governor General’s Award for Literature and for Translation, the Grand Prix du livre de Montreal, the Prix littéraire France-Québec, and the Man Booker International Prize. She lives in Paris.
Other books by Annie Ernaux
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