Marguerite Duras.

Marguerite Duras was born in 1914 in Gia Dinh, Cochinchina, French Indochina. Her father died when she was four, and her mother used the family’s savings to buy a plot of land in Cambodia, but flooding destroyed everything, leading to her mother’s death. After attending high school in Saigon, Duras left Indochina to study law at the University of Paris.

Duras began writing in 1943 and published 34 novels over five decades. Her novel L’Amant won the Prix Goncourt in 1984. She directed about 16 films; India Song 1975 earned the French Cinema Academy Grand Prix. Duras worked regularly with actress Delphine Seyrig, whom she called the greatest actress in France.

Duras was married twice: to Robert Antelme and later to Dionys Mascolo. She had one son, Jean Mascolo, with Mascolo. Duras claimed to have rescued François Mitterrand during World War II, and they remained close friends; she campaigned for him unconditionally.

Duras’s works are still studied and adapted. She was a fixture of Paris’s intellectual elite and influenced writers and filmmakers globally. She is remembered for L’Amant, the semi-autobiographical novel that won France’s most prestigious literary prize, and for her distinctive film style.