Characterized by graceful prose and difficult subject matter, Duras's novel is a lovely and dark existential meditation. Underscored by three deaths, the fiction centers on a narrator who, though detached emotionally from those around her, is deeply attuned to their movements. Through acute observations and vivid descriptions, Duras takes us into her character's inner landscape; we wander the country- and seaside along with her thoughts, which, for the most part, inhabit the space between childhood and adulthood. As with winter's bright sunshine,  there’s a cold clarity to the woman's disconnection, search for meaning, and introspection, one accompanied by deep bouts of depression--which Duras conveys with a light hand, filling what could have been a brutal thriller with language that shouldn’t feel quite as lovely as it does.