A clear-sighted self-portrait in which literature is the only land that matters.

Lydie Salvayre writes because she doesn't know how to speak—or can't. In this scathing self-portrait, she explores her penchant for loneliness, her Spanish roots, the shame she feels for her mother tongue, foundational exile, her studies in psychiatry, and humor as a defense against despair. Faced with Albane, a young neighbor keen on new romance, Salvayre responds with a moving and indomitable tale. Self-Portrait in Black Ink is a declaration of love to literature expressed with lucidity as tender as it is fierce.