The Lover

By: Marguerite Duras

Narrated by: Kathleen Gati

An international best-seller with more than one million copies in print and a winner of France's Prix Goncourt, The Lover has been acclaimed by critics all over the world since its first publication in 1984.

Set in the prewar Indochina of Marguerite Duras's childhood, this is the haunting tale of a tumultuous affair between an adolescent French girl and her Chinese lover. In spare yet luminous prose, Duras evokes life on the margins of Saigon in the waning days of France's colonial empire, and its representation in the passionate relationship between two unforgettable outcasts.

This edition of The Lover includes a new introduction by Maxine Hong Kingston that looks back at Duras's world from an intriguing new perspective--that of a visitor to Vietnam today.

Critic reviews

"Powerful, authentic, completely successful . . . perfect."
—The New York Times Book Review

“An exquisite jewel of a novel, as multifaceted as a diamond, as seamless and polished as a pearl.”
—Boston Herald

“A vivid, lingering novel . . . a brilliant work of art.”
—Cleveland Plain Dealer

Bold, harsh, haunting

Haunting flickers of memory that linger in the air like the strains of a guitar string or a piano note or a heady perfume. I’m left quite breathless.

Poignant memories

A very personal and eloquent telling of pain from young love. An imperfect family impels a very young lady to seek an outside relationship that severely complicates her life until elderly.

Beautiful, Sparse, Classic

Duras' classic, semi-autobiographical novel is so beautiful and tragically sad. One longing might only be that like life, you only wish it were a little longer.

Amazing love story

A heart wrenching love story of something that cannot be. It had me on the edge of my seat hoping for these two to end up together and at the same time knowing it’s wrong for them.
It had become one of my favorite Books

Not a favorite

Found it a bit creepy. Visited the house in Vietnam and so I wanted to read the book.