The day that she realizes that she has no desire to move in with her lover—W—and in all likelihood, never will, our narrator decides to put an end to their 6 years old relationship. But when W calls to inform her that he has met someone else and that he is about to move with that person, the narrator’s life shifts into an all-consuming jealousy that permeates even the smallest details of her existence.

Annie Ernaux describes this obsession, less as a desire to win over W anew than a fiction that feeds on the meaningless crumbs of reality, a poison that invades all and keeps you from seeing life from other perspectives.

L’Occupation, a novel by Annie Ernaux, Folio / The Occupation, a novel translated from the French by Anna Moschovakis, Seven Stories Press

Miriam Bridenne

After almost two decades of working in publishing, and a few round trips between Paris and New York, Miriam has decided to settle down at Albertine to do what she enjoys most: recommending books she loves. Somehow this also includes taking bizarre pictures for Albertine's social media outlets.

Other recommendations by Miriam Bridenne