A Woman's Story

By: Annie Ernaux, Tanya Leslie

Narrated by: Tavia Gilbert

Upon her mother’s death from Alzheimer’s, Annie Ernaux embarks on a daunting journey back through time, as she seeks to “capture the real woman, the one who existed independently from me, born on the outskirts of a small Normandy town, and who died in the geriatric ward of a hospital in the suburbs of Paris.” She explores the bond between mother and daughter, tenuous and unshakable at once, the alienating worlds that separate them, and the inescapable truth that we must lose the ones we love. In this quietly powerful tribute, Ernaux attempts to do her mother the greatest justice she can: to portray her as the individual she was. She writes, “I believe I am writing about my mother because it is my turn to bring her into the world.”

©2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC (P)2019 Dreamscape Media, LLC

The best writing

I absolutely love this book. This book can help those of us who seek out our history and our resemblance to our Mothers.

Beautiful Tribute, Beautiful Writing

Annie Ernaux writes with such love and honesty about her mother. This tribute enriched my sense of myself as a mother and my lingering complicated feelings about my own mother, who passed away almost 30 years ago. I’ll be listening to this again. <3

Compelling Portrait

I have only recently discovered Annie Ernaux, and i very much enjoyed her story of a woman who was her mother.

writing truthfully about her, Ernaux describes the complexity of this seemingly ordinary woman and her importance in Ernaux’s life.

A stiff and uninteresting story

This book was stiff and uninteresting. There was little compelling or captivating about her mother or her mother's story, The formal writing made it all even more dull.