Annie Ernaux - A Outra Filha

In 2010, Annie Ernaux received an invitation from the publisher NiL to participate in the Les Affranchis collection, built around a challenge for authors: to write a letter to someone they have never written to.

Annie then returns to a Sunday in August 1950, in Yvetot, when, at the age of ten, she overhears a conversation between her mother and a client and, in a state of shock, learns that, before her birth, her parents had had another daughter. The girl died at the age of six from diphtheria, and her parents never spoke of her to Annie – nor did Annie ever mention to her parents that she knew of her existence. It is to her, to this sister with whom she never played or argued, that she addresses this text. A reflection on silences and expectations, on the construction of identity and the meanings of memories, on language, The Other Daughter is an impressive game of mirrors.