Wartime Writings

1943–1949

Marguerite Duras

paperback

$17.95

A marvel and a treasure.
—LE MONDE

Preposterous, self-obsessed, eloquent, unstoppable, Duras left her mark on French letters, theater, and cinema.
—EDMUND WHITE, THE NEW YORK REVIEW OF BOOKS

A “fierce and lyrical writer of conscience” (Booklist), Marguerite Duras kept hidden in a closet in her country home in France four small notebooks filled with writings from the war years. Published here in their entirety for the first time, these remarkable wartime writings include slices of autobiography and feature the first versions of Duras’ most famous works, the true stories behind the international bestsellers The Lover, The War, and several other classics.

Critics have hailed Wartime Writings as “among the most arresting [pages] she ever wrote” (The New York Review of Books). In them, Duras chronicles the poignant circumstances of her childhood in colonial Vietnam, her experiences with the French Resistance during the war, and the conflicted and exhilarating time of the Liberation and the early postwar years. Throughout, Duras paints an unflinching portrait of this troubled and formative period for France.

Allowing readers to fully and intimately explore the life of one of the most celebrated artists of the twentieth century, Wartime Writings gives new meaning to Duras’ previous work and adds to her intricate life story.

Marguerite Duras (1914–1996) was one of France’s most important literary figures. She is the author of such acclaimed novels as The Lover, The Ravishing of Lol Stein, and The Sailor from Gibraltar, as well as the screenplay for Hiroshima, Mon Amour. Linda Coverdale is an award-winning translator hose most recent translation for The New Press was Tanguy Viel’s novel Beyond Suspicion. She lives in New York City.