THE USE OF PHOTOGRAPHY

Tavia Gilbert narrates this unique audiobook. Shortly after their affair began in 2003, Nobel Prize winning French writer Annie Ernaux and photographer Marc Marie began taking pictures of the clothes they left on the floor before sex. Later, they selected 14 of those pictures to write about, each separately creating the texts that have become this audiobook. There is no conventional dialogue, but all narrator Gilbert has to do is deepen her voice slightly for Marie's sections, and we always know whose piece we are hearing. During this time, Ernaux was dealing with breast cancer, and Gilbert conveys that mixture of emotions--fresh love and the fear of death--quite well. Both authors are fine, but Ernaux is clearly the star. D.M.H. © AudioFile 2024, Portland, Maine [Published: OCTOBER 2024]