Annie Ernaux - O Acontecimento

A brilliant 23-year-old university student discovers she is pregnant. Overcome with shame, aware that the pregnancy will represent a social failure for her and her family, she knows she cannot have the child. But in 1963 France, abortion is illegal, and there is no one to turn to.

Forty years later, the memories of that event remain present, an impossible-to-overcome trauma whose shadows extend beyond the individual story.

Written with sharp clarity, without artifice, this is a powerful novel about suffering, justice, and the female condition. Written by Annie Ernaux in 1999, it was adapted for film in 2021 by Audrey Diwan, a film that won the Golden Lion at Venice.