Born in French Indochina in 1914, MARGUERITE DURAS was one of the towering figures in 20th century French literature. The author of of over 73 books, mostly novels (including No More, The Vice-Consul, The English Lover, The North China Lover, and the bestselling The Lover), she also penned the original screenplays for films such as India Song and Hiroshima Mon Amour, which won the International Critics Prize at the Cannes Film Festival and the New York Film Critics Award, and memoirs including The War. About Marguerite Duras, Germaine Brée has written, "Love, the fierceness of love, the happiness, the pain, the compelling and destructive power of love is Marguerite Duras's essential theme." Duras died in 1996 in Paris.