HAPPENING

Annie Ernaux, trans. Tanya Leslie (Fitzcarraldo Editions)

French writer Annie Ernaux was just 23 when, in 1963, she discovered she was pregnant and decided she could not keep the child. Living in France when abortion was illegal, she made a failed attempt to administer one herself with a knitting needle, before seeking out a backstreet abortionist in Paris – an experience that put her life at risk. Forty years later, Happening is a confessional memoir in which Ernaux reveals the story behind those traumatic months, in a style that is honest, meticulous and unflinching. Ernaux’s prose is unadorned with moral defence or literary decoration, and instead speaks the simple and shocking truth about a subject that many still hold taboo. This is a brave and important book that illustrates the potentially fatal consequences of criminalising and demonising abortion. 

words Sam Pryce

Price: £8.99. Info: www.fitzcarraldoeditions.com