The Other Girl Quotes

“Aos vinte e dois anos”
― Annie Ernaux, A Outra Filha

“After a great deal of searching, the word that came to me, and seemed the most accurate – irrefutable – was duped. I’d been duped in the most colloquial sense of the word: I was mortified. I’d been living in a state of illusion. I was not unique. There was another girl, who’d sprung out of nowhere. Therefore, all the love I thought I was receiving was false.”
― Annie Ernaux, The Other Girl

“Sixty years later, I still stumble over the word nice and try to untangle the meanings it had in relation to you, and to them, though the meaning was immediately, blindingly clear in the sense that it changed my place in the family in a second. Between them and me, suddenly there was you, invisible and adored, while I was pushed aside, pushed away to make room for you. Thrust into the shadows while you soared above in the light of eternity. I was compared – me, the incomparable, the only child. Reality is an affair of words, a system of exclusions. More/Less. Or/And. Before/After. To be or not to be. Life or death.”
― Annie Ernaux, The Other Girl