"A Woman's Story" Author: [France] Anne Erno Publisher: Shanghai People's Publishing House Original title: Une femme

◇Anne Erno, winner of the 2022 Nobel Prize in Literature, "my own anthropologist", and representative feminist writer

◇A brief and painful "Requiem" dedicated to a woman and a mother

◇The simplified Chinese version is newly revised and released, and the translation is carefully polished to show the writing style of the original work

◇Thousands of men and (especially) women found themselves in her uncompromising writing

◆Heavy Recommendation

◆Content Introduction

A Woman's Story is Anne Ernaux's moving account of mothers and daughters, youth and aging, dreams and reality. After her mother dies of Alzheimer's, the author embarks on a daunting journey back in time, trying to capture the real woman, the woman who existed independently of her daughter, the woman who was born in a small town in Normandy and died in the geriatric ward of a hospital in the suburbs of Paris.

She explores the fragile yet unshakable bond between mother and daughter, the alienating worlds that separate them, and the inescapable fact that we must lose those we love. In this quietly powerful tribute, Erno wants to do her mother the greatest justice: to portray her as herself. As the author says, "I write about my mother now, as if it were my turn to be born again."

Erno "exposes the roots, barriers, and collective constraints of individual memory with courage and a clinician's acumen," and she "consistently examines lives that differ dramatically in gender, language, and class from different perspectives."

——Swedish Academy Nobel Prize Committee

Anne Ernö is the queen of the new autobiography.

——Times

It is reminiscent of Camus’ The Outsider and Simone de Beauvoir’s classic memoir, Death in Peace.

Erno’s recollection of her mother is a minimalist revelation, terse and sharp, piercing the heart with the precision of a surgeon’s scalpel.

——Los Angeles Weekly Reader

This autobiographical novel is about one particular woman, but it is about every woman. It vividly depicts the harsh reality of old age for a once vibrant and independent woman. Never sentimental, always restrained, this is a deeply moving story about mothers and daughters, youth and years, dreams and reality.

—Kirkus Reviews

About the Author:

Annie Ernaux

A famous contemporary French female writer. Born in 1940 in a coastal town in Normandy, France. She was born into the poor class of France, and her parents ran a small grocery store there. In order to help her escape from the humble social class and the poor living environment, her parents did their best, working day and night, to send her to university to listen to "Plato". However, when she really realized her "dream" and rose to the so-called upper class, she had an irreconcilable gap with her parents and was forever separated from the world she came from. Erno fearlessly recorded her own experiences and her clear views on society and collective memory. Her works are written in a neutral style of plain description, which is very easy to resonate with readers.

Her work "A Man's Place" won the 1984 French Renaudot Literature Prize, and "The Long Days" won the 2008 French Duras Literature Prize. So far, she has published more than 20 works, which have been translated into more than a dozen languages. All her works have been awarded the "Marguerite Yourcenar Award" (2017), the Spanish "Formentor Literature Award" (2019), and the "Woerth European Literature Award" (2021).

Translator : Guo Yumei