"She was a hard one, that mother. Dreadful. Unbearable. Full of love. A mother to all, to everything. Shouting. Screaming. Hard, I say… "

The mother – the subject of the story – will never get the opportunity to speak about herself, nor her life as a teacher in Indochina, nor the time she used to be a pianist at Eden Cinema during the silent era, nor her thankless, arduous existence after that.
Marguerite Duras is now recognised as one of the major authors of the 20th century, the topic of many a study in France and abroad.