The Possession

by Ernaux, Annie | Autobiography: general
Published 22/05/2025 by Fitzcarraldo Editions in the United Kingdom
Paperback | 48 pages
196 x 127 x 5mm | 86g

‘The strangest thing about jealousy is that it can populate an entire city – the whole world – with a person you may never have met.’ These words set the framework for The Possession, a striking portrait of a woman after a love affair has ended. Annie Ernaux pulls the reader through every step of jealousy, of a woman’s need to know who has replaced her in a lost beloved’s life. Ernaux’s writing, characteristically gorgeous in its precision, depicts the all too familiar human tendency to seek control and certainty after rejection.