Annie Ernaux

The French author of three New York Times Notable Books of the Year presents a novel written in the form of journal entries over seven years that records the tumultuous life of random strangers. Tour. IP.

Exteriors

Kat Albanese

It is outside my own life that my past existence lies: in passengers commuting on the Métro or the RER; in shoppers glimpsed on escalators at Auchan or in the Galleries Lafayette; in complete strangers who cannot know that they possess part of my story; in faces and bodies which I shall never see again. In the same way, I myself, anonymous among the bustling crowds on streets and in department stores, must secretly play a role in the lives of others.

Contrary to a real theatre, members of the audience here avoid looking at the actors and affect not to hear their performance. Embarrassed to see real life making a spectacle of itself, and not the opposite.

Slice of a thousand lives. The art of noticing. Thoughtful, sentimental and mostly forgettable.

Exteriors

Reviews

Highlights