This collection brings together three essential works by Marguerite Duras, one of post-war France's most influential writers. The Wartime Notebooks trace her formative experiences from a difficult childhood in Indochina to her harrowing wait for her husband's return from Nazi internment, revealing the personal history behind her acclaimed novels. The Lover, her bestselling autobiographical novel, recounts a tumultuous affair between an adolescent French girl and her wealthy Chinese lover in pre-war Indochina, evoking life on the margins of France's colonial empire in spare, luminous prose. Practicalities collects intensely personal meditations dictated near the end of her life on motherhood, domesticity, sex, love, alcohol, and writing—witty, earthy, and surprisingly relevant reflections on timeless themes.

Why You Should Read?

• Explores themes of desire, memory, colonialism, war, and the complexities of love through Duras's unflinching autobiographical lens and distinctive minimalist style
• Essential works by a major 20th-century literary figure whose experimental prose and fearless honesty influenced generations of writers and filmmakers
• Perfect for readers who appreciate literary fiction, autobiographical writing, French literature, or bold explorations of sexuality, identity, and the writing life
• This Everyman's Library edition collects three landmark works in one volume, offering a comprehensive introduction to Duras's powerful voice and vision