An elderly woman with Alzheimer's disease dies in the geriatric ward of a hospital outside Paris. Her daughter, writer Annie Ernaux, struggling to cope with her loss, begins writing a new book that tells the story of a woman born into a poor Norman family before World War I and who spent her life striving to transcend the boundaries of her class. “I think I’m writing about my mother because it’s my turn to bring her into the world,” Erno explains his undertaking, reliving in the letter scene after scene from his mother’s life until her very end, dwelling on individual episodes of his difficult relationship with her with the dispassion of a biographer—and the inconsolability of a daughter left alone with an irreparable lack.

Author: Annie Erno
Publishing House: No Kidding Press
Year: 2022.0
Number of pages: 80.0
Cover type: paperback
Translator: Maria Krasovitskaya
Editor: Timofey Petukhov
Age group: 18+