Pain/Memoir of War

The stylistically severe and restrained diary of waiting for the return of her man from a concentration camp mirrors an archetypal drama. Marguerite Duras forces us to re-evaluate the notion of humanity and using a simple but powerful dramatic narrative provides evidence of the importance of determination, empathy and solidarity in times when there is so much evil around that we cease to see concrete faces of individual human beings behind it who are the same as us. This is one of the reasons why this 70-year-old text is again topical today.