Other Girl

One Sunday in Yvetôt, August 1950. Annie is playing outside in the sun. Her mother steps out of the grocery to chat with a customer, a few metres from her. The two women'sconversation is perfectly audible and the scraps of anunparalleledconfidence are etched forever in Annie's memory. Beforeshe was born, her parents had another daughter. She died at the age of six from diphtheria. Annie will never hear another word from her parents about this unknown sister, nor will she ever ask them a single question about her: their family unit has formed in the imageof its vanished predecessor.InThe Other Girl, brilliantly translated for the first time into English by Alison L. Strayer, Annie Ernaux explores the meaning of this family secret, and the insurmountable distance that separates the two sisters.