The 70-year-old Marguerite Duras, born and raised in what was then French Indochina, reflects on her relationship with a wealthy Chinese man in 1930s Saigon in this novel. The charm of the book lies in its oscillation between autobiography and fiction. The novel was awarded the Prix Goncourt in France, and its film adaptation by Jean-Jacques Annaud in 1992 was also highly successful. This is an unabridged and unedited text edition in the original language, featuring translations of difficult words at the bottom of each page, as well as a postscript and literary references.