Besides writing books, the French writer Hélène Lenoir (b. 1955) has taught German in France and French in Germany, where she has lived and worked since 1980. Lenoir has published short stories, La Brisure (1994, "The Break"), and two novels, Bourrasque (1995, "A Gust of Wind") and Elle va partir (1996, "She's Leaving"). Her latest novel, Son nom d'avant (1998, "Her Maiden Name"), came out in German, Ihr Mädchenname, last year. The book was a success among critics and readers alike in both France and Germany. It is the story of a woman who leads a safe and comfortable bourgeois life, but who in her daydreams becomes fixed on an amorous episode of her youth, and who finally becomes completely alienated from her family. Lenoir has been compared to Nathalie Sarraute, whose literary tradition she picks up and continues with a similar talent for observing reality, fixing on it and overcoming it. Her language is relentless and her sense of style unfailing. The cruel and exact description of the bourgeoisie, as well as the subtle psychological study of a woman's emotional life also bring to mind Madame Bovary. Lenoir is a master of phrase and rhyme; she writes long sentences which seem short, because every word and break carries a meaning.
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