Anne Ernaux attempts to uncover the different facets of her mother, who died weakened by the illness that destroyed her memory and deprived her of her physical and mental integrity. She seeks to reconstruct the life of this woman who was her mother, an active and open woman towards the world, who worked as a laborer before opening her own shop, who was anxious to maintain her place in society, who was a voracious reader and believed that "to succeed, you must first learn." However, she also faces the contradictory feelings that a daughter often has towards her mother: love and hatred, guilt, tenderness, irritation, and that visceral and silent attachment to this elderly woman who is no longer alive.

Ernaux's writing, precise and clear, powerfully resurrects this mother who, for her daughter, embodied Time and the social condition of her origins: "I lost the last connection I had with a world to which I no longer belong."

WHAT THEY SAID ABOUT THE BOOK

Incredibly original. A Woman is the story of every woman. Its strength lies not in the dramatic event that constitutes its core, but in the moments that could go unnoticed, if the author's need did not push her to retrieve from her memory every image of the beloved person who is now lost. New York Times Book Review

Nothing less than a minimalist revelation, a writing so simple and sharp that it reaches straight to the heart with surgical precision. Los Angeles Reader

Somewhere along the way, and without losing a moment the significance of specific details, A Woman transcends the individual story. Ernaux finds the truth of her mother's life, which proves to be not just a piece but the whole story. St. Petersburg Times

A profound act of great love and deep pain. Bloomsbury Review