L'Autre Fille

Annie Ernaux writes a letter to a sister she never knew. The girl died of diphtheria at six, two years before Ernaux was born, and Ernaux learned of her existence only as a child, overhearing her mother talk to a neighbor. The text assembles what little remains of her: a few photographs, her parents' silence, and the Catholic and working-class world of Normandy in the 1940s. Ernaux asks what it means to live in the place of someone who left before you and to have been, in some way, a replacement.

This short book is for readers of memoir and autofiction who prefer spare, exact writing. It will matter most to those who have lived with a family secret, or who are curious about how Ernaux builds a whole life from a handful of facts.

Deep, inward-looking and contemplative; a moderate read.

Best for readers like The Mindful Reader. Which reader are you?