My father tried to kill my mother one Sunday in June in the early afternoon begins Shame the
probing story of the twelve-year-old girl who will become the author herself and the single
traumatic memory that will echo and resonate throughout her life. With the emotionally rich
voice of great fiction and the diamond-sharp analytical eye of a scientist Annie Ernaux
provides a powerful reflection on experience and the power of violent memory to endure through
time to determine the course of a life.
