Happening

In 1963, twenty-three-year-old Annie Ernaux discovers she is pregnant. Unmarried and alone, she is overwhelmed by shame and fear. In a society where such a pregnancy would mark both her and her family with social disgrace, she knows she cannot keep the child.

Written forty years later, Happening is Ernaux’s unflinching account of the trauma that followed. At a time when abortion was illegal in France, she first attempts to end the pregnancy herself, in desperation. Eventually, she finds someone willing to perform the procedure—an experience that nearly costs her life when she ends up in a hospital emergency ward.

Drawing on her memories and journal entries from that time, Ernaux reconstructs the events with striking honesty and clarity, reflecting on the meaning of what she endured.

WINNER OF THE 2022 NOBEL PRIZE IN LITERATURE