Shame

A dazzling novel which tells the story of a twelve-year-old girl who sees her father attempt to kill her mother. The moment lives inside her, indeed it cuts through her like an axe. Over time, the memory cools until it is just like a snapshot one might carry in a purse but the cut is still there and eventually she finds that her whole being has grown around it like a tree that has been struck by lightning and survived. Over 100,000 copies sold in France.

Author Biography

Born in 1940, ANNIE ERNAUX grew up in Normandy, studied at Rouen University, and began teaching high school. From 1977 to 2000, she was a professor at the Centre National d’Enseignement par Correspondance. Her books, in particular A Man’s Place and A Woman’s Story, have become contemporary classics in France. She won the prestigious Prix Renaudot for A Man’s Place when it was first published in French in 1984. The English edition was a New York Times Notable Book and a finalist for the Los Angeles Times Book Prize. The English edition of A Woman’s Story was a New York Times Notable Book.