Ljubavnik; Moderato cantabile

The novel, based on autobiographical elements, is about a forbidden love affair between a poor fifteen-year-old French girl and an elegant young man from a rich Chinese family. In the year of its publication, the novel was awarded the French literary prize Goncourt. A film of the same name (1992) directed by Jean-Jacques Annaud was made based on this literary model.

Moderato cantabile: It is a short lyrical prose that focuses on the exhaustingly passionate dialogue of the main characters in an inn in a small town by the sea, which gives the novel an almost chamber character. In addition, Marguerite Duras presents her new author's voice in it: the one by which we will recognize her years later in "The Lover", the best-selling French novel of all time.