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The Other Girl

By Annie Ernaux
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Brief Description
One Sunday in Yvetot, August 1950. Annie is playing outside in the sun. Her mother steps out of the grocery to chat with a customer, a few metres from her. The two women's conversation is perfectly audible; its scraps become etched forever in Annie's memory. Before... Read More
Format: Paperback / softback
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Before she was born, Annie Ernaux's parents had another daughter who died at the age of six from diphtheria. Translated into English for the first time, The Other Girl explores the meaning of this family secret, which Annie only discovered by chance as a child and never discussed with her parents again. 

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One Sunday in Yvetot, August 1950. Annie is playing outside in the sun. Her mother steps out of the grocery to chat with a customer, a few metres from her. The two women's conversation is perfectly audible; its scraps become etched forever in Annie's memory. Before she was born, her parents had another daughter. She died at the age of six from diphtheria.

Annie will never hear another word from her parents about this unknown sister, nor will she ask them a single question about her: their family unit has formed in the image of its vanished predecessor. In The Other Girl, brilliantly translated for the first time into English by Alison L. Strayer, Annie Ernaux explores the meaning of this family secret, and the insurmountable distance that separates the two sisters.

Book Details

INFORMATION

ISBN: 9781804271841

Publisher: Fitzcarraldo Editions

Format: Paperback / softback

Date Published: 25 September 2025

Country: United Kingdom

Imprint: Fitzcarraldo Editions

Contributors:

  • Translated by Alison L. Strayer

Audience: General / adult

DIMENSIONS

Width: 125.0mm

Height: 197.0mm

Weight: 250g

Pages: 64

Collections

Annie Ernaux Fiction General Fiction Literary Fiction

About the Author

Born in 1940, Annie Ernaux grew up in Normandy, studied at Rouen University, and later taught at secondary 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. In 2022, she was awarded the Nobel Prize in Literature. 


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