SIMPLE PASSION by Annie Ernaux, translated...

SIMPLE PASSION by Annie Ernaux, translated from the French by Tanya Leslie (Ballantine: $8.50; 64 pp.). A bestseller in France, Annie Ernaux’s novella explores the emotions of a sophisticated woman involved with a married man. The unnamed narrator savors her passion, but never loses sight of its transitory nature: “From the very beginning, and throughout the whole of our affair, I had the privilege of knowing what we all find out in the end: the man we love is a complete stranger.” This elegantly Gallic reflection on the nature of love suggests an upper-class restatement of Edith Piaf’s “No, Je ne regrette rien.”