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by Annie Ernaux
Cleaned Out tells the story of Denise Lesur, a 20-year-old woman suffering the after-effects of a back-alley abortion.
Alone in her college dorm room, Denise attempts to understand how her suffocating middle-class upbringing has brought her to such an awful present. Ernaux, one of France's most important contemporary writers, daringly breaks with formal French literary tradition in this moving novel about abortion, growing up, and coming to terms with one's childhood.
"Without romanticizing or moralizing, Ernaux imaginatively and artfully presents a universal theme: the hopefulness and hopelessness of life." —Library Journal
This information about Cleaned Out was first featured
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Annie Ernaux a publie son premier roman Les armoires vides en 1974. Couronnee par le prix Renaudot en 1984 pour La place, elle est notamment l'auteur d'Une femme (1988), de Passion simple (1992) et de La honte (1997), parus aux editions Gallimard.
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