Synopses & Reviews
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 The Lover, 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.
About the Author
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 and wrote the screenplay for
Hiroshima Mon Amour. The New Press has published translations of her books
The North China Lover,
The War, and
Wartime Writings.