My father tried to kill my mother one Sunday in June, early in the afternoon": the book is the story of a twelve-year-old, but also of the narrator, a mature woman, the author herself. The violent moment lives within her. The trauma comes at a time when she still feels so close to her parents that the impending violent act is incomprehensible to her. It tears her apart like an axe.

Over time, the memory freezes until it is nothing more than an instant that she carries in her wallet, unchanged even after years, when the twelve-year-old has become a woman and a writer. Years later, the wound is still there, but its entire existence has nourished around it like the tree that, although struck by lightning, survived.

With the emotionally rich voice of great literature and the sharp analytical gaze of a scientist, Annie Ernaux offers a powerful reflection on the experience and power of a violent memory to withstand time and shape the trajectory of a life.