A Woman's Story is Annie Ernaux's "deeply affecting account of mothers and
daughters, youth and age, and dreams and reality" (Kirkus Reviews). Upon her
mother's death from Alzheimer's, Ernaux embarks on a daunting journey back
through time, as she seeks to "capture the real woman, the one who existed
independently from me, born on the outskirts of a small Normandy town, and who
died in the geriatric ward of a hospital in the suburbs of Paris." She explores
the bond between mother and daughter, tenuous and unshakable at once, the
alienating worlds that separate them, and the inescapable truth that we must
lose the ones we love.