A WOMAN’S STORY by Annie Ernaux,...

A WOMAN’S STORY by Annie Ernaux, translated (from the what? Sanskrit?) by Tanya Leslie (Ballantine: $8). Part journal and part memoir, “A Woman’s Story” recounts Ernaux’s struggle to come to grips with the death of her aged mother: “I believe I am writing about my mother because it is my turn to bring her into the world.” In clear, graceful prose she recounts her mother’s life and searches for the essence of the departed woman in memories, family stories and photographs. The portrait that emerges from these recollections is of a warm, outgoing, independent but unremarkable woman whom love and memory elevate to a higher station. Tanya Leslie does an admirable job of capturing Ernaux’s understated, intensely personal style in English.