For fans of Duras’s enduring bestseller
The Lover
, an evocative and intimate exploration of the drama and power of adolescence, in a remarkable blend of fiction and memoir
Far more daring and truthful than any of her other novels,
The North China Lover
is a fascinating retelling of the dramatic experiences of Duras's adolescence that shaped her most famous work. Initially conceived as notes toward a screenplay for
, this later novel, written toward the end of her life, emphasizes the tougher aspects of her youth in Indochina and possesses the intimate feel of a documentary.
Both shocking and enthralling, the story Duras tells is "so powerfully imagined (or remembered) that it . . . lingers like a strong perfume" (
Publishers Weekly
). Hailed by the French critics as a return to "the Duras of the great books and the great days," it is a mature and complex rendering of a formative period in the author's life.