Simple Passion is my introduction to Annie Ernaux, through Henrik Karlsson’s essay “Good ideas”. He writes about the techniques people use to get into and stay in the creative zone, and one of them is introducing a long delay between when you do the work and when the world sees it.
Annie Ernaux writes about this in A Simple Passion, a memoir about how she becomes obsessed in a banal way with a man who is having an affair with her—the thought that others will read these notes about the tacky sex life of a middle-aged woman feels, to her, almost fictional. She will be far away when it happens. Therefore, she doesn’t feel a need to protect herself.
It is also very short, which makes it a good first book before moving on to The Years, which seems to be her best-known work.